Brown Algae problem! Please Help!

[adbaldwi]

I have a 55 gallon FOWLR tank setup and running now for 1 and a half months. There is 5 damsels (about to be removed), a clown, and a dwarf lion, 15 Astrea Snails, 15 bule legged hermits. All of the sudden I have been having a big brown algae problem and don't know what to do. The subsrate is crushed florida coral with coral life 50/50 lighting (10,000K and Actinic), HOB Seaclone 100 Protien Skimmer, HOB filter about to be 120 gallon canister. I did a water change 2 days ago and still have a terrible problem with the brown algae. Is there anything you could suggest??? The lights are on a 11 day 13 night cycle with a timer. Please let me know ASAP.

[justin42279]

Sounds like Diatom algea. Its common in new tanks and mine went away after about 3 weeks. Since I don't have any information on your tank and I have no idea what you mean by 11 day and 13 night cycle, I'll just tell you what I did to my tank to get rid of it.

Limiting the amount of time that I actually had the lights on made the biggest difference. I limited it to 5 hours in the evening and the algea slowly started to die off of the sand and rocks. After about 3 weeks, it was gone and I was slowly able to increase that amount of time to a full day. Also, make sure that your not overfeeding.

[reefking]

during the day about how many hours would you run the lights, I leave them on till the time I wake up till the time I go to bed is this too much and if so how should I do it?

[adbaldwi]

that is what the 11/13 means. It is on a timer, 11 hours of light, 13 hours of dark. I just got 10 more hermits and 10 more snails, the algae in the coral is gone and the live rock is almost clean. The water still has a little brown tint to it, but I have only let the lights run for 3 hours today.

[wrangler]

Are you using RO/DI water?

[amf82380]

I had the same problem and it lasted about three weeks I would clean it off and the next day it would be back I cut the amount of hrs I had my light on and I installed a canister filter instead of the HOB and I cleaned it once and havent had any trouble with it for about a week now.

[adbaldwi]

I would use RO/DI water if I could afford it. But my canister is on the way and everything is looking a lot better.