Just cleaned dads tank....please read!!!!

So my father has a 75gal FOWLR TANK...and there is a few things to this thread so here goes 1:My dad has been using treated tap water for quite some time to add water and do water changes...2:his 265Watt PCL died about 5-6 months ago he was using this double flouresent light with a day light and attinic (POOPIE LIGHT) so his tank created this brown long hair nasty looking algae all over the back on the rocks on top of sand.So for fathers day i bought 25gal of Ro/di water and got his PCL light fixed so i over hauled his tank i sucked out all algae cleaned his filters and scrubbed some rocks and did a 25 gal water change and we put his new light on the tank so today when he came home from work he said he has this brown algae all over the rock and sand bed .......

So after doing research on here i thought it might be Dino?? but its not Snot looking and my dad says this morning he noticed a little somthing nothing major but when he came home he said it was every where...so ive been reading for about 2 hours on here and theres all kinds answers how to take care of it but there all diffrent i just want the best way to go about this we just spent all kinds of money and time so we want to know the best way to appraoch this also im not 100% sure it is dino its not slimey and has no bubbles was gonna handle it my self but i want to ask you guys first....

Thanks Rocky

 

you sucked out a bunch of algae and then got nicer lights. You should expect more algae to grow to take the place of the initial algae since you didn't do much to improve the water quality initially.


A picture of the algae would help us identify it.

 

I should probably point out you don't need nice hi powered lighting on FOWLR.

 

Keep up with the water changes, make sure it is not tap because that is most likely the cause of the troubles. Depending how old the filters were it may have just been nitrate traps. How long has the tank been up by the way? Untill then... Try to extend the fathers day gift for a few more weeks and youll have it back on track.

 

+1 to all the above.

Whatever type algae you have, it's most likely caused by the nitrates/phosphates/silicates/whatever that has soaked into the rocks and sand for the duration of tap water use. Just remain vigilant in water changes with RO/DI. Once the nutrients stop leaching, the algae will die off.

 

It is important to know what type of filtration he uses, does he have a skimmer? A refugium? Any nutrient export other than water changes? What are the water parameters? What is the bioload? And a pic would greatly help identify it.

 

I do know that but we got a smoking deal on it and he wants to get some softies in the future....

 

He is running a cascade caninster filter,Penguin biowheel 350 piggy back,sea clone 110 Skimmer,Koralia powerheads.only export he has is the water changes and he only has 5 fish 1-yellow tang and 4 diffrent damsels

 

Tap water is your issue as u suspected. Keep on doing good volume water changes. Run some GFO in a reactor or media bag, make sure you're not overfeeding and overtime, it will improve.
Unfortunately, there is no quick fix. Hard work and patience.

Sent from my phone using my two opposable digits

 

so my next question is what is GFO?? and schould we shut the lights down for a few days to slow the prosses down on blooming really im asking whats are next step to do besides a another RO?DI water change and gfo??? thanks again for your help guys...