Algae?

[crxin]

I am new to the hobby and currently got my first fish, clown fish. I have had him for about 2 days and he seems to be doing very good. I am starting to notice a brown algae, someone told me it was diatom related, and said it was bad? I am currently using tap water with a chemical additive to remove the chlorine. I had a good friend test the water and everything was with acceptable parameters like tds and stuff for tap water. Once i noticed this, i checked my parameters and all were on, my ph was good, salinty was good, nitrites, and nitrates were good. any help would be good.

thanks

crx/rob

[Sugar Magnolia]

It probably is diatoms. How old is the tank? Is it fully cycled? Also, using tap will lead to problems with nuisance algaes down the road. Switch to RO/DI or at the very least, bottled distilled water.

[crxin]

tank is fully cycled, been up and cycling for about 2 months. I just added the first fish the other day. Now is the algae harmful? I dont want to hurt the fish. I dont have the money for the RO/DI system and live in an apartment so i have to be careful what i attache to the sink.

[crxin]

what way can i combat this algae?

[FlyinggFish]

Is the algae only on the sand bed? I had an unusual algae on my sand bed, and if you do I can give you some pointers (could be the same thing).
From my experience, when my tanks cycle they will go through a momentary small burst of algae, which can be cleaned up by your clean up crew (blue-legged hermits).

[bubbly]

Is the "brown algae" like a kind golden-brown dust? Then it's probably diatoms, and that's standard for a new tank.

Are you using a skimmer?

Do you have a refugium?

It's going to be important to make sure you have a good plan for nutrient removal or you may end up with pest problems (hair algae, bubble algae, aptasia, etc) later on.

Right now it sounds like everything is normal.

[crxin]

yea no skimmer or refugium right now, it is like a golden haze, and the snails i have are cleaning some of it up....

[crxin]

what do you guys think i bought a brita filter to screw directly onto the faucet, and have a chemical that will rid the water of chlorine, think this will improve water quality a lot?

[gowingsgo]

I did not have an RO/DI filter when I first got into the hobby and every few months would have some type of algae outback. tap water is way to inconsistent in quality. It might be good this week but next week it could change and not for the better.
so I would recommend that you first get one even used or find some one who has one and see if they would make some water for you. I know I make water for a few guys in my club when they need it.
Also adding a fuge is the other thing you really need to do. I set mine up so that the algae grows in there instead of the main tank and after a few months of growing the algae in the fuge I stopped having any algae problems in my main tank. If you can't put a fuge under your tank try setting up a hang on back filter with a light over the top and put some small live rock and cheto in it. just make sure that you block the light from getting to your main tank with some type of board
Good luck

[crxin]

yea i know i am working toward all of that, its just the money right now that is holding me back a little. I am saying for all the above. Will the brita help my water quality though?

[crxin]

can my clean up crew combat it?

[sra127]

brita wont help b/c you want to deionize the water. add some more snails and hermits and they should go to town on the algae. if that doesnt help, reduce your light cycle and syphon out as much as you can from the sand bed. and i understand money is tight, but you can get 10 gallons of distilled water for 9 bucks.....

[Imzadi]

Using the brita is definetly better than NOT using one. Get 4 Water Cooler jugs, and fill them up for $2 each. It will be hard work and cost a bit, but will be better for the tank. Until you get an RO unit.

[CLINTOS]

I use nothing but tap water for 7 years it depends I guess of where you live and the tap water quality

brita filter I guess is better then nothing just change the filter often and do weekly water changes

until you can get a ro/di

[Katmanblue]

I read a great article about the brown algae phenom in a new tank. I'm trying to find the link, but in the meantime the basics of the article was to treat the algae like any other unwanted organism. Reduce what it uses to live with, in other words, nutrients and light. My tank is about the same age as yours and though I dont have any fish yet, everything almost overnight became covered in a light dusting of the stuff. Very unsightly. Since I dont have any corals, I stopped running my lights for about 3 days and POOF. Gone. I would recommend that as one way to go. If you do have corals, then maybe reducing the duration of your on time. The second thing is as other people mentioned--the water you're putting from the tap is feeding the problem buy the introduction of silicates. If you cant afford the ro/di unit, then you may just have to make trips to your grocery store to fill 5 or 10 gallon jugs with ro/di water from their machines. I have done both things and I have almost eradicated the brown algae.
Oh--one more thing--if it fits your overall scheme as far as fish population and what you want to put in the tank; I believe a good algae eater would be a lawnmower blenny.

Good luck!--if I find that article I'll post it.

[Katmanblue]

http://saltaquarium.about.com/cs/algaecontrol/a/aa071103.htm

[crxin]

what do you think about this
anyone ever use this?

http://cgi.ebay.com/Chemi-Pure-Chemi-Pure-Elite-Filter-Media-11-74-oz-NIB_W0QQitemZ310162520437QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item4837207975&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

[sedor]

Chemi-Pure is good stuff it needs to be run in a high flow area of the sump, and it will not replace the need for RO/DI water. That is the most important thing you can do, its around $169 (melevsreef.com) for a complete setup, that's not much compared to any other equipment we run.

[crxin]

i have a hang on filter, marineland filter, could i just throw it in there, since the water is always flowing through? or is this not enough?

[Katmanblue]

If I read all your replies correctly, i dont know where else you'd put it. From the product info, it just specifies a high flow area. The marineland filters have the carbon in there anyway, so I dont know why you couldn't just replace those with the chemi pure bags.

[crxin]

well i think it would be more beneficial to have both no? i have room in there for both.