Live Rock thick brown algea

[brian90vette]

My 55 gallon saltwater has been running for about two weeks and the live rock has turned brown as it is covered with algea. Is this common? I've added a bunch of turbo snails but they can only do so much. Can I take the rock out of the tank and clean it? If so, what is the best way to do this?

Thanks,
Brian

 

[whacky]

Hi brian

As you tank is new the algae is more likely to be a diatom "cyano bacter" this is common in new marine setups and should die off in time, did you use RO water for your original fill?

Do help the process along if you haven used ro water you can peform water changes using ro water, if you use ro water then you can just syphon the stuff of of the rocks during water changes, alsoo turning the lights of can help, and finally a good protien skimmer also can work wonders

HTH

Whacky

 

[brian90vette]

Thanks,

I actually did add a potein skimmer and the brown algea has been diminished significantly. Ive heard alot of bad things about the seaclone protein skimmer but so far its done nothing but pull tons of dark brown gunk out of the tank each day. Ive noticed that now the algea is green instead of brown. I did not use RO water on the fill however, I did buy and install a Ro system a couple weeks ago and am using it for all water changes. Soon it will all be RO water.

Thanks,

Brian