algea outbreak!

[FDNY3838]

hey guys again...I posted about a week or so ago about my insane ammonia level. Since then i got it all back to almost normal. But since then, well acctually a week prior to that i upgrated the lighting to 96 measaly watts from the stock. with 10,000k and a actinic bulb. Now i have a large outbreak of brown algea on live rock which looks nice and sand bed...Normal or good or bad or what? thanks for info

[marduc]

Are you testing for nitrites and nitrates? That ammonia gets broke down into first nitrites, which then in turn gets broke down to nitrates, both of which will fuel the algea outbreak.

Aggressive water changes (even daily if it is a big problem) will shorten the outbreak, and reduce its severity.

[chem-e]

Sounds like you're dealing with cyano. Fire up the skimmer and keep up with the water changes. Increasing the flow in the tank will help as well.

[joekr]

decrease your light cycle as well, especially if you just upgraded lights.

[FDNY3838]

ok i gotcha...i've been testing for ammonia cause it killed a few fish that i had. the ammonia is almost 0 right now. is the algea bad for fish? i've got about 10 snails still living right now

[joekr]

If the ammonia is almost gone, you should start looking at nitrites and nitrates...If the snails of weather an ammonia storm, they'll probably pull the the trites and trates...

[michaeldaly]

Is the algae slimy or powdery?

[FDNY3838]

the algea is reddish brown, with some like green slimy stuff on it too...just checked trates and trites, and they are both zero on the test kit. ammonia is almost down to 0 any ideas??
thanks all

[michaeldaly]

Agree that it's probably cyano, you could try siphoning as much as possible away.

[marduc]

remove as much of the algea as you can, aggressive water changes (pure water -preferrably RO/DI - NOT TAP!), patience.

The algea is unsightly, but it won't be detrimental to your fish.. despite readings of 0 for trites and trates, your tank is going through a cycle, and it will take time, and patience to get the upper hand against the algea.

[FDNY3838]

so a clean up crew wont help either? will it go away by itself? im so tired of problems lol well thanks for help

[Scoobydude825]

Within a week after I got my T-5 lighting my whole tank looked like a green forest. I'm now switching to RO/DI water and being patient. Do the 10,000k lights fuel the algea also or just the actinics? My tank definantly looks broken in but I don't want it to take over my tank.

[michaeldaly]

The actinics will not fuel the algae, the 10000K will encourage algae growth though.

[Scoobydude825]

I'll cut those back then. The algea has gotten so thick that my clownfish is now hosting in it like an anemone. Its cute to watch but I need to get rid of that algae before it completely takes over.

[trigger05]

when my tank had an algae outbreak
i did several water changes every few days
also try phosban, it worked for me.
How old is your tank? algae outbreaks are a normal part of a new tank