Brown stuff, pics inside

Hey everyone,

I'm a newbie to the hobby, just said hi in the "Say Hello" forum.

So my question is about the attached pics. We've had this stuff accumulating for a month or so now. The tank is about 3 months old, 75g marine. We have 3 Yellowtail Damsels in it and that's all. We have 45lbs of live rock that just finished curing that I don't want to add until I can get this problem under control.

Our tank paramaters as far as ammonia, nitrites and nitrates are all 0. pH=8.2 and salinity is 1.022.

I've vacuumed it a few times but it always comes back. A small amount of brown starts accumulating on the sand and, within a week or so, it is pretty thick with some green starting to form. These pictures were taken a week apart.

Lights are on 8h a day, I've only been using the flourescent and not the blue deal. We have a wet/dry filter that I am beginning to loathe. The protein skimmer is sort of built in, and it does absolutely nothing. Working on a plan to put a sump together with a coralife or aquac skimmer. Oh, and we've been using RO/DI water I steal from my biology building. Salt mix is Instant Ocean.

Nevertheless, here are the pics and any help in IDing and/or defeating this problem is tremendously appreciated.

 

Diatoms most likely. Sand stirrers solve the problem. Or increased current.

 

You could try to vacum the sand clean then right after try getting a diamond goby.. he will sift the sand all day long (wont eat it) but he will be moving the sand so much it wont have enough time to grow. Also horseshoe crabs work (but are quite clumbsy and you will probably be rescuing it often)

 

Diatoms are part of a new tank.. it should go away by itself.
There are 3 algae stages to a new tank:
Diatoms
Green alga
Cyno
About Brown or Golden Diatom Algae - What Makes Brown Algae Grow and Solutions for Eliminating This Problem in Saltwater Aquariums

They come in that order.

 

I was thinking that until I read that the tank is 3 months old. Could that really be the cause? The nitrates look stable unless the kit is off. Couldn't it be caused by another param?

 

Thanks for the responses everyone. We've had this problem for a month maybe, do you still think it will go away on its own? I'm going to try switching salt mixes to Reef Crystals (I think it's called) and I'll try to get some crabs/snails in there. I just didn't want to put anything else in the tank until after I got the live rock in there, and I didn't want to put that in there until I got this stuff out.

I'll look into a goby once all the live rock is placed.

 

I feel your pain my friend. mine is on its way out I think and I cant wait to see it go. they say on here that the first year is an algae headache. I think mine was due to bad equipment. it gets better trust me my tank was covered.

 

Algae headache indeed!! I've had mine for about a month now, but it feels like forever...ahhh, 11 months to go??

 

+1 to diatoms. They love silica.

 

It actually looks like a combo of all 3 ++