Algae bloom

[rica5tully]

One other question.

I've had my 55-gallon tank set up for about a month and a half. It cycled and I put one ocellaris clown in. The tank has a lot of base rock and about an inch and a half of arogonite sand. I'm running an Aqua C Remora with a maxijet and two maxijet powerheads. The tank is at 80 degrees.

I have two 55-watt PowerCompact lights and one 30-watt actinic light. They are one for 10-11 hours a day.

A few days ago it EXPLODED in algae. Mostly green on the rocks but also some brown.

My last saltwater tank had a brown aglae bloom that went away on its own. Is that what this is? What should I do?

Thanks!

[VoodooChild]

Do you have anything in there that is photosynthetic? If not, you don't need the lights until you put corals or something in there that needs it. Your fish will be fine. That'll make a huge difference right off the bat. All tanks go through some form of algal bloom in the beginning, but you can do things to minimize it. Check your water for nitrates and, if possible, phosphates.

[kreblak]

Phos-zorb has worked very well for me in removing phosphates from my tank. Also, I switched over to RO water. I was using conditioned tap water. Algae blooms are inevitable, but controllable. If you aren't using RO water already, you should start.

What inverts do you have on clean up detail? I have found that my cerith, nerite, turbo, and astrea snails make the glass sparkle. Between the four species they cover pretty much every growth in the tank. My hermits and sea urchin get the rest.