Brown algae!!

[Darrell]

Hi, i got some live rock last week and my tank has flooded with brown algae (diatom) sp?

Will the little life forms such as feather dusters etc be harmed? Should i attempt to get it off or sit and wait?

Thanks

 

[Navarre]

Sit and wait. This is a normal part of marine tank life in its early days.

 

[Darrell]

Ok, just looks horrible.

Caan it kill living things on live rock? Doesn't look like it has to me

 

[Chac]

Hi Daryll

What you are seeing a natural progression of the cycling process that all tanks go through, some peeps have Diatom or Cyno Blooms worse than others, my last one was quite bad but disapeared after about 3 - 4 weeks, but i may disapear after 1 week depending on what it is feeding on.

Are you using RO Water Only

It is no uncommon to see this type of Algea in tanks up to 1 year old as even at this point a tank is not fully mature and can have blooms that are normally seen in the cycling stage, you can clean the glass with an algea magnet, but I would resist the temptation to scrap the Life Rock, the algea will cause no problems to any stock you have at the mo. (If any)

One thing that can & does cause Algea Blooms is a Low Flow Rate, I persoanlly go to a slightly higher end for flow (45x overall volume), I do this over 3 powerheads so that I get an even dispersall of water around my tank and get no dead spots

What is your current flow rate.

Also for peace of mind I would aslo test you RO Water for Phostphates just incase

But as I say this is normal & will pass, but to cut down the amount of algea blooms in the future I would make sure your flow rate is high enought, also are you using ay Phosphate remover at the Mo.

What are you testing for at the mo.

Del



Just remember that this is the one of the most existing part of Fish Keeping (The anticipation of the 1st Fish so go slowly and enjoy it)

 

[Darrell]

Hi Del, Thanks for your time.

I am using DI Water at the moment. Don't know if i should change to RO.

My filter powerhead kicks out a storm but i don't know that rate. I have a 36 Gallon and 2 PHD 1 powerheads kicking out 440lph/97gph each.

My DI water has 1mg/l of phosphat. I have heard over 1 is not good.

No phosphat remover as of yet. Should i get one?

Pic of my test kit:

 

[Chac]

Hi Darrel

DI - is water that you have passed thru an Ion Exchange Resin and is then known as DeIonised Water

A lot of peeps use both RO then DI

RO to get the crap out & DI to Dionize it, this depends on your Tap Water quality if it is real bad then I would say a unit with both RO & DI is best but if the water quality is good the a DI unit will suffice

All this also depends on how pure you want your water, as there are peeps out there than use Tapwater (NOOOO) and get away with it.

I personally added a Phos remover in to my system almost right away, either add it to an external filter or a skimmer (if it has a housing for this)

I also started skimming from the word go

Remember to keep a record of your test reading, that way you can look back and check for the cycle spike

 

[Chac]

Sorry I forgot to mention Powerheads

39g must be around 180l, so IMO I would get the flow up to about 4500lph

at the mo it seems to be just over 1000lph which IMO will be
A- a very low flow
B- creating a lot of dead spots were your liverock will not be getting a decent flow of water continually over it,
this can lead to problems such as Algea Blooms, but also pH drops if there is to little gas exhange nearer the surface of the tank.

I personally only count my powerheads as turnover and do not include my external, I also run my powerheads at different levels and parts of the tank depending on what I am running on the powerhead (Spray Bar, Rotators etc) but I do have a powerhead on nearer the surface to help with the gas exchange

Del