Possible Algae

[Angelus]

O.k. So My tank has been up for 3 Months..72 Gallon bow. I believe I am finally seeing Algae, but not exactly sure. Basically Its kind of Reddish or brown in color, its covering the live rock, and the sand, and also constintly removing it from the glass. Is this normal. I know I have heard expressions of Diatoms or Red Algae. Whats my next step. I mean I have been cleaning the glass, and kind of kicking up the sand, and my coral beauty seems to love picking it from the live rock, should I get a cleanup crew. I have a baby trigger, and I know they can pick at the snails and such, but is it still worthy to pick up.

[tippMANn98]

sounds normal to me, I went through that during the first month in my 29....its a diatomic bloom, just be paitent

[AQTCJAK]

brown algae is the diatoms red algae is cyno bacteria

[Woodstock]

Diatoms is more of a thick dusting of brown algae that is attached well to the surfaces. This algae thrives on silicates and is usually only seen in newly established tanks. It will go away on its own.

On the other fin, Cyanobacteria is a thick mat of persistant slime that can be blown off easily. This algae thrives on nitrAtes, phosphates, and low flow/oxygen areas. To combat this will take a bit of work.

• Make sure you are using ro/di water for all water changes and top offs;
• keep all filters clean every 3-4 days;
• crank up your skimmer to skim 'wet' in order to remove more organics before they begin to disolve;
• blow off all rocks to remove ditritus and hopefully allow the skimmer or other mechanical filter to remove it;
• incorporate a refugium and stock with macro algae that will compete with the nusiance algae for available nutrients;
• siphon out as much of the slime as you can (cyano is VERY quick to absorb trAtes and po4 so when you remove the cyano, you are exporting them).

HTH~