Help, brown algae on my live rock-Algae-3reef Forums

chrischick · 04-13-2004, 05:52 AM

My tanks been running for about a month, i last week put in 75lbs of live rock in a 55 gallon..I have 4" dsb of caribsea aragonite, 2 tank raised clowns, and my live rock has this brown algae growing on it...just where the light is hitting it, the rock was in my friends tank for 3 months that i bought it off of...so its plenty cured. The brown is only showin up on the rocks wehre the light is hitting them...WHAT DO I DO?
I have three powerheads that are good for 300gph...so i should be good in the circulation field...help me guys.

Matt Rogers · 04-13-2004, 06:29 AM

How old are the lights?
Test the water?
Is this a new tank with fish?
What kind of filtration do you have?

chrischick · 04-13-2004, 06:53 AM

1)The Lights are a month old... 2x 65 watt 10,000k Pc, 2x65 watt actinic Pc...Coralife reef light..

2)Aquaclear 500 filter, with media in it...had carbon in for a couple days...algae seemed to get thicker then,,,took carbon out last night..algae seems to be going away a bit...

3)This is a month or so old tank with two tank raised clowns. They are extremely happy, a male and a female paired and wont leave eachothers sides. Very active and are eating fine.

Ammonia is at 0ppms...havent got my nitrate and nitrite tested in the last week. Will do to lfs today for test.

Matt Rogers · 04-13-2004, 08:26 AM

See if they will test for silicates and phosphates as they have a way of promoting algae too.

In my opinion your filtration is not good enough. I would get a good protein skimmer at least.

Jason McKenzie · 04-13-2004, 10:28 AM

For a tank being so young I would say all in Normal. I agree with Matt and a P-Skimmer is necessary.
but aside from that a month old tank will get brown Algae for a couple of weeks. you can fight it, by siphoning it off will airline tubing , lower the amount of time your lights are on, and make sure your not over feeding your fish. But it will run it's course and then stop.
It's not the LR that is the problem it is the water and the whole tank in general. Give it some time.

J

chrischick · 04-13-2004, 10:30 AM

So is this going to damage my live rock at all...There is small bubbles on some of the algae.......

Jason McKenzie · 04-13-2004, 10:44 AM

No your LR will be fine

chrischick · 04-13-2004, 02:19 PM

So I just have to sit it out...it already looks like it is starting to go away...I dont see how I would have silicates as It is aragonite sand...but hey....im also getting algae blooms on my glass as well.....will snails get rid of this for me or..????Hopefully.....i added the two clowns at different times, one at a time a few days apart....theyve been in the tank for about a week and a half for the first..and the second one(female) arrived a few days after....When would I be alright to put in my cleaner crew?

hottielover14 · 04-13-2004, 02:37 PM

i have brown algae in mine too and mines been going now for 5 1/2 months. I have a lot of carbon could that be the reason also why I have so much.

Matt Rogers · 04-13-2004, 04:37 PM

[quote author=chrischick link=board=ASAP;num=1081871575;start=0#7 date=04/13/04 at 17:19:52]...I dont see how I would have silicates as It is aragonite sand...[/quote]

Silicates from your tap water is what I was thinking.

I do not believe carbon causes algae.