Help Brown Algae

[jeffberg]

I have an established 150 gallon tank with everything in it, that all of the sudden is getting covered in brown algae. Water parameters look good I do weekly 40 gallon water changes with ro/di, drip kalk and run carbon 24/7. I have 3 10k ushio 250 mh and 4 96 watt pc's that are all 3 months old. I have 2 6100 Tunze streams and 2 1500 seios for water movement. I have a fuge with live rock and chaeto, this stuff is growing on top of coraline algae all corals clams etc. look ok good polyp extension. I also have a bag of phosban in my sump. any ideas. Thanks Jeff

[BigDaddy]

If its stringy and snott like (containing air bubbles) it's a dino outbreak. The best way to kill it is to run ozone w/ the lights off for about 48hrs.

[jeffberg]

I don't have ozone readily available.

[Green Lantern]

If it's a dino-outbreak one thing that won't work is water changes. Lights out will work for a short period of time but you have to determine the cause if possible. Do you have a sandbed? One thing suggested to me was that because this stuff lives in our system but generally is balanced and you've had a bacteria crash. I know that when I went through it on a 155gal setup I found very little answers and very few suggestions. I changed 100% of the water weekly while siphoning and fooling with the photoperiod. I had a top of the line system with good lighting, high flow and good filtration. Don't mean to freak you out but the stuff is horrible.

[jeffberg]

I do have a sand bed but it is only 6 months old.

[BigDaddy]

If it's dino, running ozone w/ the lights out for 48hrs will get rid of it. I fought w/ it for 6 mts. It killed off all of my clean up crew and 3 RBTA's.

Leaving the lights off weakens the dinos and allows the ozone to work efficiently. If you have a fuge it also causes any macro algae to get a head start on the excess nutrients. I would also do a large water change immediately after the 48hrs.

[jeffberg]

Does uv light hurt or help in this situation?

[BigDaddy]

UV should help.

[jeffberg]

All I can do at this point is lights out except uv ,fresh carbon, fresh phosban and a big water change this weekend.