Advice on algae for a newbie

[mikeydj]

Hi,

My tank has been running for 12 days, all water parameters are perfect except nitrate which is 40ppm (I'm doing a water change tomorrow with RO water.). However I have a problem with brown/reddish algae on the living rock (I have 80lbs of Fiji rock in 80 gallon tank). At present I have turned off the lights to prevent more growth, can someone let me know if this is normal or not - and if not what I need to do?

Many thanks.

[Boca Kris]

what are your water parameters? nitrates? phosphates? SG?

[dsn112]

Its normal for new tanks to go through multiply types of algae outbreaks. Sounds like a cyano bacteria outbreak though, but is totally normal for new tanks.

[Boca Kris]

yup...you should expect some in the beginning. Ihad it pretty bad when my tank was new, and then I woke up one morning and it was 100% gone.

I just added some beefed up lights to my system and Im battling it again, so youre not alone!

[mikeydj]

my sg is 1.022 nitrite is 0 ammonia is 0 phosphrate is 0.03 and ph is 8.2

[mikeydj]

when i kept malawi cychlids i also used tufa rock and had brown algae problems, it did eventually go away but i wasnt bothered about it in my malawi tank, however it is different in this marine tank, thanks for the advice you guys i hope ur right about it just disappearing and if any one out there has also had brown algae problems and did solve it please give me ur valuable advise.

[Boca Kris]

i would bump that SG up a little....thats a bit low....gradually raise it maybe to .025 or .026...dont do it all at once

[mikeydj]

i have been told by other aquarists that 1.021-1.024 is the normal range, i have also read this in books, but i have also read other books with the sg at 1.024-1.026 so for me it is difficult to know which is right and wrong, i think i will very slowly increase to 1.024 and see what happens, if anyone out there agrees please let me know, thanks guys

[kau_cinta_ku]

FYI 1.025-1.026 is closer to NSW

[Boca Kris]

I heard alot of conflicting info when I started in March also...for the most part...alot of the stuff that is found here:

http://archive.reefcentral.com/forum...readid=1031074

I have found to be pretty reliable, and it was and IS a saving grace for me!

Hope that helps some!

[mikeydj]

thanks for the info sam, it is nice to speak to someone with more experience than myself with marines, i have 12 days with marines and 25 years with freshwater, hopfully one day i will be able to say that i have 25 years with marines

[Timinator]

I would keep it as close to 1.026 as you can. If you look at most of the well established tanks with corals its normally kept at 1.025-1.026. Not saying that 1.024 is unacceptable. And the algae problems are normal. I would suggest a Phosphate reactor if its not already been said.This might help you in the long run with algae. By starving it with the lights off around three days and your Phosphates down you will be on your way. But your tank has got a ways to go because it is still cycling.

[mikeydj]

thanks for the info tim i will look into the sg levels and as for the phosphate, i am using rowaphos which has taken the level down to 0.03 and it is still dropping

[Deb91]

[welcome]

Best of Luck on your new tank!