keish24

OK...So I bought a 55 gal tank from a guy who had everything up and running. Set up the tank at home with his sand and water. Bought 75lbs of LR and put it in tank. He had the tank running for over a year. I have had it for about 2 months and have had rock for about 1 month. Water tests have been good. ammonia is 0, nitrite is 0, and nitrate is about 20. I have been doing about a 10 gal water change every week to get the nitrate down lower. Anywho....so this weekend I went out of town and while I am gone I buy 2 clownfish and an anemone. I return to my home to find my tank has exploded with some kind of brown algae. It is all over the back of the tank and on much of the LR. What is this from? How do I get rid of it? Will it hurt my clowns or my anemone? Any help is much appreciated!!
Thanks!

pinkfloydpuffer

It just sounds like some regular low-light algae. I'm no saltwater expert, but I doubt it'll harm your fish/anenome. What kind of lighting do you have on that tank?

Scaredone

I'm still a newbie myself but this normal phase in a beginner tank (fighting the brown myself), I've got a few turbo snails and some blue leg hermit crabs that are loving the stuff and slowly eating it away.

Lower the light for a bit, get some snail and hermits that eat the brown algae. Urchins also will eat the algae but have heard horror stories about them eating anemones as well.

I'm not an expert so take what I say with a grain of salt

keish24

This is what my Lighting setup is: Current USA Satelite Model #1016 - Dual Satellite 4x65 watt SunPaq with Lunar Light and 2 Fans. Also I am wanting to do a REEF tank so I am wondering what is and what isnt compatable with coral and fish as far as the algae cleaning crews are concerned.

Hypnox

Lowering the light with an anemone in the tank will likely kill the anemone. Also, some anemones require an insane amount of lighting. What type of anemone did you get and what lighting system are you running?

Your brown algae problem is typical new tank syndrome, likely brought on by your nitrate levels. Expect the hair algae invasion to come shortly after the diatoms start to die off.

keish24

i bought a rose buble tip anemone. i am running a 260 watt lighting system. when i got home today both clowns were dead. hoping and praying my anemone doest croak too. not sure what to do next. not sure why clowns died!?!