[rodwhsa]

Newbee, my tank has cycled, and I now have an outbreak of brown algea. I have some LR, and a couple small snails, and a small Damsel.

50 gal corner tank, 350 watt MH, 350 canister, two large power heads, PS

What is the best way to get rid of this outbreak?

[Lowej82]

get some blue leg crabs........ keep doing water changes. What you have is brown diatom, after it goes you should start getting some coraline algae.

Ive heard you get this as a tank cycles and it can come from over feeding I belive.

You will get some better replys soon, search the threads and you will find some post on this.

[Lowej82]

check this thread out

http://www.reefbuilders.com/forums/n...nk-diatom.html

[Tonz of fun]

Brown diantom algea come at the end of the cycle. What kind of water are you using? It will leave on its own if you are using RO water. I wouldnt buy anymore live stock then you want or need. It soon will pass and you wont need all the crabs and what not...

[bri74]

I have had my tank up for about 4 months and the brown stuff has yet to go away.

[Lowej82]

yikes...........

[bri74]

any ideas?

[Lowej82]

Im not sure,


Tonz will prolly have something for ya soon,

What are you doing? /not doing?

What are your water paremeters?

What type of water are you using, tap? is it city or natural well, RO, store bought bottled?

Is the tank in direct sunlight?

...............these are things you should post, things ppl will have to ask then wait for a reply before they can actually help you.

Id say with time, water changes and good water paremeters it should go away.

Im sure someone will correct me on this............

if its 1 or 2 small rocks pull them scrub lightly, you should prolly recure the pieces ( would not recomend doing any of this, just a thought I had while waiting for it to pass in my tank)

I have 1 small piece of LR on bottom of stack with a light coating of brown diatom left, under that is covered in purple coraline,

So id what a little longer before doing anything crazy

[NATIVEVAMAN]

The primary food source for diatom algea is silicates.There are two primary sources of silicates.One is from the live rock itself,it may have a fine coating on it when you get it.Rinse it really well in salt water before putting it in the tank.The second is the use of tap water.useing tap water to make your salt mix introduces silicates into the tank.Depending on your local water supply this could be quite a large amount.NEVER use tap water to mix your salt because diatoms are not the only problem it will cause.In order for there to be diatom algea in the tank after 4 months the only cause could be tap water.

[rodwhsa]

I used my well water to set up my tank. It is a very deep well and tested good. All of my current test are right were they need to be. The brown has just showed up in the last couple days. It isnt terible but I definatly want to get rid of it.

Do my MH lights help me or hurt me? Should I back off to running only one for a while?

[Tonz of fun]

I doubt your testing for silicates or phosphates...Maybe you are. Only RO/DI water should be used. Even if you use a prime or something like that you will still have diantom blooms. Light do contribute to the the growth of algea. 10 hourz on the MH are ideal. Just give it a week and it should go away. The bloom is sort of a signal that you can put some things in there. But that bloom will never go away if you continue to use a water that has tons of silicates and minerals in it...

[bri74]

M parameters are good and everything in the tank seems healthy I did use tap water cause a friend of mine used it said that our tap water up here was really good so I trusted him. another tale of woe!. The tank is never in direct sunlight. I just have a 40 watt flourescent and 15 blue led moonlight at night

[bri74]

Ok Tons I will start changing water with RO when I get home from work in a week! thanks

[Tonz of fun]

Are you testing for phosphates. See the thing is there are somethings in this feild that you cant test for. I hear all the time "My tang died but dont know why, all my peramiters are good." There are somethings we dont test for. PH, Nitrates, Nitrites, Amonium have nothing to do with youe diantom bloom.

[rodwhsa]

I am only testing: PH, nitrites, nitrates, amonia. I am not testing for anything else.

[bri74]

ok will look into a phosphate test when i get home thanks man

[Tonz of fun]

That stilll is only part of it. If its in the budget I highly recomend you getting a RO/DI system. This will solve your problems. www.airwaterice.com Mighty Mite with DI Added

[rodwhsa]

That was my next question, thanks for the link!

[Tonz of fun]

Its the best for the money...Im glad I could help. Feel free to ask us any more questions.

[Lowej82]

can we use bottled water? if so can it be any kind of bottled water from wally world?
until a ro/di system can be picked up

[glampka]

If you don't have RO/DI water, get distilled.
Another source of silicates could be the sand. What kind of sand are you using? You can buy a silicate remover & run that in a power or canister filter.

[NATIVEVAMAN]

There is also a filter pad the you can run in a hob filter that will remove silicates.they are called "Pura filtration pads"and they remove not only slicates,they get phosphates as well.I get them at the lfs.

[jvharding]

Here is a nice filter pad:



Echoing Native