fishrule101

I 'm starting to get the brown wavy algae on my LR and glass. I cleaned my LR with a brush this morning but it seems to grow right back. Now its starting to grow on my sand. What do I do?? Are my crabs fighting it??

sirdarksol

Usually, algae comes from an excess of three things: Nitrogen, phosphates, and light. Cut off one thing, and you slow it a bit. Cut off two, and you slow it a lot. Cut off all three, and you get rid of it.

Make sure you aren't overfeeding your tank, that you don't have a setup that's generating a lot of nitrates (I've heard that certain filters do this). A skimmer helps, because it takes proteins that can break down into nitrogen.
Phosphates can be in the food, so overfeeding can cause problems there, as well.

A well-setup refugium stocked with fast-growing macro-algae can help suck both nitrogen and phosphorous out of the water.

As far as lighting goes, what kinds and how many watts do you have for what size of a tank? I won't be able to help in this area, but someone else might.

fishrule101

I don't overfeed. I only feed them in the morning. I gave them about 1/3 the size of a pinky nail of frozen food. I think it both the nitrate(filter) and lighting. Its been about a week with my new T-5s.I think that the nitrate weren't enough and the light made it start. I'll clean my filter right now. Hope it goes away soon. Also I have an unknown coral growing and the algae is all over it. It this bad??

sirdarksol

I think that the algae could harm the coral, since coral needs light to grow.

fishrule101

Well should i brush off the algae?? The coral is hard.

sirdarksol

That one I'm going to have to leave to the coral experts. One of them should be by with the next day or so (and the coral shouldn't suffer for that little time).

fishrule101

What I don't get is that the brown algae is making more purple algae to grow.

Slug

I don't think its making it grow more, you just have more nutrients in the tank which is growing all the algae. I'd cut back the feedings a little myself, or step up your water changes. How often do you change the water?

I'd take as much out as possible, and get it off the coral. Some coral does not react well to debris laying on them for extended periods of time.

How old is the tank? Brown diatoms are very common in new tanks. What is your lighting schedule like?

fishrule101

I do water changes weekly. The tank is about two months and the lights are turned on from 7 or 8am to 8pm. Now its all over the tank should I turn of the lights off until it goes away??

sirdarksol

Slug, do SW diatoms build colonies that end up like hair? He initially described the algae as "brown and wavy," which is why I didn't even think of diatoms. FW diatoms are simply a brown dust that covers everything in the tank.

I agree with the "cut back on feedings and step up water changes" for a bit. Still not sure if you should try to get the algae off of the coral, though.

fishrule101

So feed every other day?? So I should do water changes twice every week??

fishrule101

Also I try to brush off the algae off the LR and it won't come off. Is it going to stay??

Slug

Its most likely Dinoflagelates. Most likely meaning to much nutrients in the system. I'd definently cut back feedings (start with once every other day i guess), do a WC...once a week should be fine i think the feedings were the main part, and possibly increase the flow if you can, that way algae doesn't really have a chance to setting and grow.

If you have a sump or a HOB filter, something like chaeto (Macro algae) would help with eating the nutrients for itself, and out competing the other algaes for it.

fishrule101

Is the algae going to stay on the LR??

Slug

As the nutrient level drops in the tank it should start to go away. Though you might want to scrub it off or pick it off and then suck it up during a water change.

fishrule101

Hey I was gone for about three days. I left the lights off and when I came back the algae was almost all gone. Some LR still had some small spots with algae. I'm thinking of leaving the lights off one or two more days or until it clears.

SaleenS7Rs

Ive been getting this brownish orange type of stuff in my tank Im thinking I have the same stuff as this guy right here. Is this stuff a real bad thing to have right now? I dont have any fish and Im trying to get this biological filter setup umm Ive had the tank with the rock in there for about three to four weeks now and was going to do my first water change tomorrow oh maybe I should tell you what I got for a tank I got a 120 gallon tank with a Rena xp4 filter it says it can filter out 265 us gallons Ill take a picture of this stuff on saturday and post it up on here maybe that will help out better

defcon11

The brown algae will go away. I had the same thing on my tank after I got my new lighting system. It eventually died off and got replaced in some places (the front glass especially, go figure) by hair algae. s are currently working on the problem and I have no qualms with paying them overtime. Interestingly though, on my live rock the coraline algae has exploded everywhere and spreading rapidly. When I mean rapidly, I mean noticeable growth everyday.
I suggest getting turbo s to help with the algae in addition to the above advice.