Brown Algae Question

corrado007

corrado007

Active Member
I’ve got a question about brown algae. Will it just go away when the cause goes away or will it have to be physically, mechanically removed as it runs out of nutrients? I’ve had a reef tank set up for just over a year now although most of the LR was in a FOWLR tank before that. I’ve recently switched to MH (about 2 months ago)and added a few pounds of LR and the tank is now having an outbreak of brown algae that’s growing on everything including various corals, the overflow, and LR. I’m assuming it’s an abundance of phosphates and such causing the issue since my photo period is down to 7 hours of MH and 8 hours of VHO actincis so I’m just doing water changes frequently and skimming 24/7 as usual. When I do water changes I’m first moving a spare powerhead around by hand in the tank to blow off the algae from my corals and rocks as much as possible, then when it’s in the water column I siphon about 20-25% of the water and replace it with fresh RO/DI salt mix. I’m also using a filter sock and have a fuge with some Cheato (sp) and other macros in it. Any other suggestions?
Thanks!
 
heels92

heels92

Member
How long are you running your lights?

This question come up on here often.

These two were recent and should give you some ideas.

http://www.reefsanctuary.com/forums/general-reef-aquarium-discussion/28225-green-algea.html

http://www.reefsanctuary.com/forums...discussion/28081-cant-get-rid-hair-algea.html

I had an outbreak last summer and got my nitrates, phosphates in order, but I still had to get in and put some elbow grease in it to remove along with overloading your tank with clean up crew(s.)

I think blowing the algae around and removing water could both help and hurt in that you are removing some of the algae thru the waterchange, but you might just want to take each coral, rock, etc out when you do it and brush them off in a bucket of water from your tank. That way you know you are getting all of the algae from that piece out of your tank.


Darrell
 
corrado007

corrado007

Active Member
I was running them for 8 hours a day with the 220 W of VHO actinics 10 hours a day, then I cut down to 7 for the MH and 8 for the VHO. I've actually read a ton of threads on algae control and I know that I have to do to get it under control (lots of work) but I was actually most curious about how to get the algae out of the tank. I wasn't sure if it would just dissipate or break down and be skimmed out or if it would have to be manually removed. I can see the benefit of removing corals and rocks to rinse them off in a bucket but I'm afraid that's not feasible in my tank, many corals have grown over multiple rocks and so on. Thank you for your input and the additional reading you offered, I'll be sure to check it out. You can never have too much info.
 
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