[smfettig]

Hi all,

I have a 75 gallon reef tank that has been set up 7 months now and everything is GREAT! SPS and LPS corals... all growing colorful and some reproducing. The only problem I have is that brown algae is growning on the sand and glass (never on the live rock). After cleaning the tank, normal cleaning of glass and sucking off the top area of sand I will notice within a couple of hours the sand turning brown again. I should note that the substrate is aragamax and is approximately 2" deep all nitrates, nitrites, ammonia, phosphate and silica at 0. Calcium is 420 and ph is 8.4.

I must note that I use coral accel and feed the inverts with kents phytoplex.

Is this happening because this tank is relatively new?

Thanks,

Steve

[ACE]

My tank is relatively new and I have the brown algae when it gets on the sand I turn down the light cycle and it eventually goes away!!!

[jvharding]

Are there any powerheads in your system? Increased water movement in the lower area of your tank should help to reduce the diatom build up on your sand. Also as Ace mentioned reduced lighting as well will help. How much water are you turning over. I have a 75G tank and I am turning over 3000 Gallons an hour! No Diatom at all in my tank not even behind my LR.

[smfettig]

I will try dimming the lights a little and turning more water. I am only pumping 1000 per hour.

Thanks guys,

Steve

[crazygator]

how often are you feeding and what type of water are you using? when this problem occured the first time i found i was over feeding and the next time i didn't have purified water. it all equates to phosphates and not all types can be detected with a test kit. if it's almost the consistensy of snot when you remove it it's called slime algae or purple slime, but it can be red, brown, deep purple and this is due to over feeding or the break down of food matter. the only way to fight this is to cut back on feeding or change the type of water.

[smfettig]

This is the craziest part. I only feed once a day and it is a very small amount. When I say small amount I mean once little cube will last just over 1 week. I am now thinking maybe feed every other day. I usually feed brine shrimp or mysis shrimp.

As for the water goes I only use RO/DI. I bought a Kent Marine unit and I even tested the output water and it was good (everything at zeros).

Do you think my sand bed is too shallow at 2"? Is feeding once a day too much? I have the following fish: 1 Royal Gramma, 1 Yellow Tang, 2 Damsels and 1 Percula clown.

[crazygator]

sounds like you hav the right stuff, maybe another inch or two of substrate but tha doesn't really affect the phosphate level. you have the same number of fish as i and i go every other day on feeding, but for me this was a drastic change from twice a day. i have run my lights for about 14 hrs. for four years and i haven't had algae probs since i switch water types and lowered food amount, but at this point try anything. most algae is not too big a deal but slime algae will cover everything and not much (if any) will eat it.sorry this is a new one for me, 9 outta 10 times this is the problem, that tenth time can be anything

[smfettig]

Thanks CrazyGator. I think I will try cutting back the food supply to every other day. Right now I cant even come close to running my lights 14 hours a day. I am around 9 hours. So far no slime algae, only the brownish gold stuff on the bottom of the tank and slight green on the glass. Those to me indicate the tank is still "new", but who knows. Let me see how the lowered food intake works out. Thanks again for all your input.

[crazygator]

gotcha. i mistook your discription for slime. that my friend is very normal. after a bit it will cover some of the equipment in your tank to give it that camo look. as faras the bottom goes look into getting a few creatures that keep the sand stirred, i.e. horeshoe crab, white sand sifting star, ect. these will help on keeping your bottom looking white and clean ( that just sounds gross)lol

[smfettig]

I will take your advice on some more bottom dwellers. Maybe one of those sand eating gobies will do, as well as a sand sifting star and horshoe crab. Good ideas.
Thanks again,
Steve

[Rick12341]

Nassarius snails are also good for stirring thesand up.

[migget]

i dont know if this will help but i had the a similar issue and thoght it was a algae but it only being what my wife found is called a diatom, a lil critter tht looks like brown algae but isnt. She researched it found a product called ALGONE and it worked great after the first packet. I have to warn, i dont know if it is tighted up my Ph went form 8.0 to between 8.4-8.8, just watch tht to see if it happens , but the stuff worked great.

[smfettig]

Interesting. I dont think I've seen the stuff, but will definately check it out. Thanks for the help.
Steve

[NATIVEVAMAN]

I would avoid using products like allgone and purple up.Allgone covers up a problem and purple up will put your ph through the roof.A good rule to live by is,"if you cant test for it dont put it in your tank".Unknown levels of any chemicals in your tank can be very dangerous in spite of what the label on the bottle says.I am quite sure the makers of allgone and purple up will not replace your dead fish.

[spartacus]

I have a queen conch that takes care of it. If the conch is on the other side of the tank of where it starts, I move him to the area and its gone within the hour.

[dinor2]

I had red cyano until I took 2 hours/day off of the lights and added 3 small nassarius snails; I do have a lawnmower blenny but have yet to see him sift thru the sand! My advice, get the nassarius snails for sand sifting over the blenny first! They're constantly moving in the sand and no more algae on sand, at all!

~Dana