Brown Algae....

[Jeff000]

My tank has been up for almost a month now, its gone through the cycle, and I have 2 black clowns and a yellow tail blue damsel, 20 hermits and probably 3 different kinds of snails for about 12 snails.
4 tube T5, one atinic, one purple something, and two 12,000k's.
7hour photo period.

This brown algae seems to explode, a turbo will clean off a good 6x6 section of rock in a day, but its covered again in a couple days. This started about 5 days ago.

Is this just something that all tanks go through? Should I cut the light way back for a few days?
I also don't seem to have any coraline growing yet, is it just too early?


Thanks for any help.

[Tuscaquatics]

Pretty normal for a tank of that age. I wouldn't worry much. What are your parameters, though? And what kind of water are you using? Tap water will fuel stuff like this if everything else is in check.

I'm not an advocate of turning lights out for nuisance algae problems, especially when it has to do with a tank's newness. I believe you need to actually let the stuff grow and work out a hierarchy as the alga complete a cycle of their own. Getting this process out of the way early helps prevent future outbreaks of stuff like cyano.

And it's a little early for the coralline. It's not going to take off until you get your nitrates and phosphates undetectable for the most part, in addition to needing the requisite amounts of calcium, alkalinity and magnesium. And some already-encrusted live rock to seed things.