Brown nasty algae

1.Clean your tank. Remove and replace about one-quarter to one-third of the water in the tank. Siphon off debris into a bucket with a hose as you remove water, and scrape excess algae off the sides. Repeat about once or twice a month. Remove any dead fish or decaying vegetation as soon as you notice them.
2

Introduce more plants if there is space. The more aquatic plants you have, the fewer nutrients available for the algae. Extra plants also help keep the water oxygenated and provide more habitats for your fish.

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3

Increase the light intensity in your tanks by replacing old lightbulbs or installing lighting equipment. Algae need light, but so do the aquatic plants. Normally, more light favors the growth of your plants most, and they compete with the algae.
4

Introduce grazers. Some species of fish, such as dwarf catfish and sucker loaches, and snails eat mostly algae and keep it under control.
5

Stop overfeeding your fish. Uneaten fish flakes are full of nutrients, which encourage algal growth. Don't give your fish more than they can eat within a few minutes. If you want to give them a treat, try live food such as daphnia, which might even eat some algal spores before they themselves are eaten.

 

I think you are talking about freshwater fish here... but your other advice is sound.

 

+ 1 This approach really works garunteed!


E

 

Update:
So I took everything into consideration. First I tried working on my water quality, i used about 10lbs of reef crystals salt and was making RODI everynight for a few days. No improvement on the cyano and it moved to my rocks.
I decided after discussing with the LFS to do chemiclean. I accidentaly increased my salt content to 1.029...i brough it back down slowly, but either the chemiclean or high salt killed all of my turbos....now 3 weeks later, the cyano is coming back...I'm not sure what to do, i barely feed my fish and my corals all look great. Cyano is already covering all my rocks and the coralline looks visibly upset.
Im thinking of doing chemiclean again against my better judgement.
Any advice? Tank looks good otherwise, I just added some duncans, palys, and a few others. Just the cyano is killing me.

 

Algae problems are usually caused by aquarium water with excess nutrients like phosphate, nitrates etc. You can try and siphon out what you can to remove the algae in the short term. In the long term you may have to examine how you care for your tank. There are some commercial dry foods also contain excess nutrients and other undesirable things like nitrates, phosphates etc so I strain/rinse my fresh/frozen foods before feeding my tank. You may want to consider feeding your fish less often. Also, changing your photo period, light bulbs more flow, using RO/DI water and a high quality salt with little if any NO3, phosphates etc like Tropic Marin may help too. Adding a phosphate remover and increasing flow in your tank may help too.