Algae?

Hey All,

My salt water tank has been cycling for about 3 weeks now. We purchased live rocks about a week and a half ago. At that time the ammonia level was about .25 and nitrite and nitrate levels were at 0. On Friday, we decided to add some Damsels to help speed up the process. Today, I checked the levels and ammonia is between .25 and 0, Nitrite is 5.0, and Nitrate is 40. Im hoping that the nitrite and nitrate levels will level off in a few days. However, I did notice some brown spots what looks like algae that is growing on the rocks and sand/gravel. Is this normal? What causes this? How to fix it?



Ry

 

This is very common in newly set up tanks.

Commonly you see a diatom bloom, that will fade as all the silicates are used up. The silicates come from the new tank and equipment.

After the diatom phase you may see an outbreak of cyanobacteria, this should also resolve.

Often next comes the green hair algae phase. You can can sometimes avoid this bloom by using only RO/DI water, avoiding long lighting periods, and avoid adding too many nutrient to the tank via feedings.

When that is all said and done a nice green coralline algae should begin to take hold and eventually being over taken by pink coralline in roughly 3 months time, depending on the big 3 parameters Calcium, Alkalinity and Magnesium.

 

Thank You

thank you. I thought about purchasing one of those algae eaters for saltwater.

 

Personally once you start to see an over development of cyano or at the beginning of the green hair algae phase is when I would purchase snails and hermits as part of the clean up crew.

Reefcleaners.org is an excellent place to review options and purchase a specialized clean up crew.

 

Algae getting worse

The brown algae seems to be getting worse. I purchased a protein skimmer which should be here in the next few days. I also purchased some Zeolite to be placed in the filter.

I know that you said that its normal...but what should I do. Its like they are growing. Will they disappear on their own or should I start scraping off the aquarium glass?

I also did a 25% water change. After a day of the change, my ammonia seems to be between 0 and .25, Nitrite is still at 5.0, and Nitrate is at 40. Its been like that for the past several days even after the water change.

 

Your protein skimmer should get the nitrate down.. i had green algae problem on my new tank, and the water change or lower light period doesn't really help.. I had to buy a PHOSBAN reactor.. I could tell the difference after 3-4 days after i added the gfo phosban. Now i have no more problems