brown algae

[cruzin94066]

I maybe having a brown algae bloom but I don't know how to stop it. Its been like three or four weeks now and its still going strong. I need to stop it soon cause its killing some of my smaller zoos.

I thought a 30% water change the first time and 15% water change the second and third time will do the job it didn't. So for the fourth time I did a 15% water change and added a phosphate reactor and still no change. Water change is ocean water and ro H2O.

My water parameters are fine. Ph is 8.2, Ammonia, Nitrate and Phosphate are close to zero. Ca is about 460-480.

I have a 46 gallon bow front reef tank. It is housing all sorts of corals and five fish. Filtration is cpr bakpak, a small cpr refugium hang on the back, a canister filter for mechanical filtration, a uv sterilzer, and 300w HQI by Coralife. The bulbs for the MH, UV and refugium are about 6-8 months old. Probably my daily feeding is 3 or 4 times a week either a cube of some sort of frozen food or a pinch of spectra a for the fish and once a week phytoplankton for the corals. I have not added much other coral foods because it seems like they are doing well from the water changes including calcium additives.

Thanks

[Rockitmakr]

Are you Skimming your water? I always ask this question when there is a problem with algae. Also, what type of turnover do you have in your main display?
:beer:

[cruzin94066]

Yes the water is being skimmed. I attached a skimmer to the return of the cannister filter. I am not sure what you mean by turnover. If you are referring to the cannister filter it is a Rena XP2 stated at 300gph. The water flow in it has 2 seio 820. The cpr bak pak has a rio 600 on it and the cpr refugium has a rio 800.

[Rockitmakr]

Chances are your setup might need a little tweaking. Just because you have a skimmer does not mean you are sufficiently skimming your water, not all of them work well IMO. I have never seen a skimmer connected to the outlet of a canister filter. The inlet of the skimmer needs unfiltered water to properly do its job. Now, for turnover...You need to have the water in your display moving enough so that you don't have any "dead spots", this will also help keep un-dissolved organics suspended in the water column so they can be skimmed out.
My 2 centz..
:beer: