Brown algae & Hair Algae bloom?!?!

Forgot.....I don't have alot of corals ( 7 month old tank ) ....so I reduced my lighting and that killed off the brown algae pretty quick ( keep an eye on the nitrates / phosphates ) and I tried a sea hare ........he wasn't to intrested in the brown hair algae FYI ......I had to supplement feed him red / green seaweed to keep him alive.

 

sorry to bring up a dead thread kind of but thanks for the info Vancop...i havent tested for nitrates or phosphates but I have a feeling that those are probably the culprit...i;m trying to keep my crappy seaclown clean so it get a lot of the extra nutrients outta the water before the algae uses the nutrients. The tank is down stairs so no sunlight gets to it and I use ro/di water only cause I know our well water is full of stuff to make a tank go crazy. I have been told to get a phosban reactor but I dont have the funds at the moment so i might have to try a diy one for the time being. It seems like I have slowed the hair algae somehow but the brown algae is a lil bit on the sand but a whole lot more on the rocks than anything. I need a good CUC but dont have the funds at the moment & besides that I have the fear that my lil blue spot puffer may pick all the snails off? =( My best guess is that if I had a good CUC and got my nitrates or phosphates under control then I wouldnt have the problem really

 

Water Update....Since installing the New RO/DI ( Typhoon III Extreme ) it has made a huge differene in the water quality vs just the DI water. My TDS is about 060 out of the Faucet and now 000 to the tanks. I can even see the difference in the fresh salt mix and smell. It will take a few months I'm sure to totally see the differences, but it has been over a week since the first water change with the new water and no BROWN has appeared in either tanks. I also Used the Red Slime Remover for 5 days prior to the first change as I has some red slime on the windows and corners. That also is gone.

The DIY Phosphate is a good idea as the PO4 is very much your culprit in Algae. A refugium is a cheaper way way to go, but for the time being......You should test for phosphates ......figure out where they are coming from first ....over feeding maybe ?? They do make a phosphate remover that will drop the levels pretty quick, but that is a temporary fix only. I know its a pain, but you need to start with the testing first .....some LFS will test for you ...I would start there. Always test before you Dose or make any changes...IMO its the only way to really know what is happening...and if your corrections are working or harming the water.

 

You could also try taking out one of those 10k day bulbs and swapping it with another actinic. You don't really need 3. Do a 10/12 light cycle. 10 hours day bulbs and 12 hours actinics. You can even cut it down to 8/10 until things get under control

 

thanks for the light suggestion....that would probably help actually.....i'm going to give that a try for the time being...i usually dont run actinics cause they are all wired into the same plug as the day bulb even though the light has different switches so it makes it difficult to run the cycle of 10000k and actinics since they are on a timer and I'm not always home much to manually turn the lights on and off for the correct cycle.

 

thanks vancop....overfeeding might be a lil bit of the problem...i have signicantly cut back on the flakes as well as frozen foods & cut back on lighting periods as well...i have been so busy lately with work i havent had as much time as i'd like to keep up with the tanks but I have a feeling that phosphates are mainly the culprit and that I should use that salifert test kit I bought a lil while back instead of letting it under the tank collecting dust =x