Brown Algae

:-[ OK. Need some help. I have been reading alot of the post on the algae board. It seems brown algae is a directly realted to nitrites, phosphates, and silcia. My tank seems to be geeting some weird readings. It is about 4 weeks old ( set up 1/28 -  cured live rock in tank. I am currently using Aquarium pharmaceuticals (liquid) and Aquarium Systems (powder) tets kits. My readings are Ammonia= 0.  Nitrite( low range) =2.0, Nitrates=20ppm, Ph 8.2  I do not have a phos test as of yet.  Also, I am using a brand new Corallife ro/di filter. The temp in my tank ranges from 79 to 82. ( lights are on about 8 -10 hours a day, then moon light klicks in.- will add fan soon to get temp down) . I understand that alge is a part of the natural cycle of the  tank.  Is it a little weird to get such a high Nitrite reading? Especially since I have a good amount of brown Algae. How long does the alge cycle usually last, I am also seeing some red slime algae ( bubbles) and very little green hair algae. I recently did a water change about thre days ago. Is it too soon to add some snails and a few crabs?

 

Its normal to get the algae. Your just going through the algae cycle. Seems like your going through the nitrogen cycle. Was your live rock fully cured or is there still some die off? I would wait another 2 weeks to put any thing in the tank, at least till you NITRITES are 0 and your nitrates stabilize. Inverts are very sensitive to nitrates and nitirites.

 

I think it is most unusual for the Nitrites to be reading that high and would doubt the test kit. That is unless you are going through a second cycle. Are you feeding the tank?

John

 

Thamks for the reply. No the live rock was not fully cured I had alot of die of. I actually scrubbed the rocks to get most of it off. SHould I do another water change? The algae is starting to look a little nasty? I also put a poly filter pad in to see if it would help.

 

Only " feeding" I done was using the NitroMax, should I keep dosing with this, and should I shorten my light cycle as well? I was thinking of doing another water change of friday and to suck out some of the algae from the sand. I will also put in a new bag of chemi as well. I also used some of Marc weiss Reef Vital DNA. But from some of the post I see that it is considered snake oil.

 

Ok, I would stop adding anything to your tank for a week then test again for Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate.

John

 

I think John, as usual,  is correct.  [smiley=2thumbsup.gif] Do not add anything!! The cycle has not yet finished. Wait another week and continue taking nitrite and nitrate readings. Sooner or later the ammonia will be 0, the nitrites will be 0, and the nitrates will stabilize. If the nitrates are above 40, I would recommend a water change of 50%. If the nitrates are above 80 I would recommend a water change of 80-90%. This will reduce your nitrates and will not remove any of the bacteria that resides in the rock, the substrate, or elsewhere in the tank.

Again this is my recommendation based on using pure ammonia for my cycling catalyst and Nitromax as the only...I repeat "ONLY" additive.

"If you want to check and see if the cycle has truly completed I would add about 1 teaspoon per forty gallons of PURE ammonia, wait two days and see if the ammonia is at 0, the nitrites should soon follow to a reading of 0, and the nitrates will then reflect the amount of ammonia put into the tank." Do not put anything live in the tank when doing this type of testing.

At the moment I am keeping the bacteria going in my QT tank (20gal) by adding 1 teaspoon every couple of days. The bacteria will not survive without something to feed on. The ammonia and nitrite readings reach 0 in two to three days. I will maintain this tank in this manner until I need it, which will be next week, and then discontinue the ammonia until the corals I am QT-ing are finished with there QT time. ;D

The size of the bacterial colony is a direct relationship to the amount of "food" that is available to it. That is why it is a good idea to add fish and corals a little at a time. At the end of the cycle you will start adding some inverts(snails and hermits) the size of the bacteria colony will reflect the amount of waste material produced by the snails and crabs, the die off from the rock, and food or other materials (dying bacteria is also a part of the waste material) decaying in the tank. I personnally did not add any fish until the fifth month, and then one to two at a time over a two month period. The same goes with the corals I am adding.

This is just the way I have been doing things, there are many ways to achieve the same goal.

Drew

 

Thanks again for the help.  dx7fd2 you are saying to add store brought ammonia to the tank, I understand that this will add food for one form of bacteria an d too see if my tank has truely cycled, but wont there be some type of reaction by the algae to such an extreme change? I just recently looked at the tank, the brown algae now appears to be forming long strings in the current. I will keep the light off for the next two days this seems to get the algae to die appear as well.  

 

You may be continuing to have die off form your live rock causing your nitrite and nitrates to be high. Are you skimming your tank , if not I would start your skimmer. And yes , I would shorten your photo period and get a phosphate test kit.

 

quincyman,

What Drew explained to you was quite thoughtful and correct. If you don't want to add ammonia just a bit of fish food or a raw shrimp will do the same thing albeit at a slower rate.

If your tank has already cycled, you will probably not even see an Ammonia or Nitrite reading as these chemicals are very quickly utilised by the bacteria. So if that happens you can be assured that you are ready to add some livestock

As for the algae, it is useless trying to beat it, live with it for a while and watch what happens and you will soon understand. The equation is really simple, common algal blooms need 3 things, food, light, and a surface to grow on. It's simply impossible to deny the algae all these three things at once in an attempt to control it, so what we do is simply limit all three things and the algae will eventually decline.

Most ( almost ) algae free tanks will have a few things in common.

Low bioload

High Alk and Calc which encourages Coraline algae

Age

John