Algea ID help please

R

regenesis000

AC Members
Dec 7, 2006
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I set up my first saltwater tank, a 14 Biocube reef tank.. it has been up for 6 weeks or so and has recently developed an algea that i cannot recognize.. it covers everything, live rock, glass, and sand, as well as the back wall of the aquarium. i have done frequent water changes and even implented "al-gone" packetts that my LFS recommended.

The algea is brown in colour and forms strings off of the live rock, sand and filter intake valves, it also has a terrible odour. it has not affected anything living in my tank as i have not lost anyfish that have been put in.
(my rocks have also been growing plants and green bubble thingys off of them, i dunno why)
Any help/ideas/suggestions as to what it is and how to get rid of it would be great.
Thanks all soo much.
 
Its Brown Diatoms and are a normal stage in tank cycling. It should eventually go away and you can also scrub it off the walls. Turbo snails help with it as well.

Are you using tap water? If so, it might not go away completely but with rodi it should disappear in a few weeks

The green bubbles growing on your rocks sounds like bubble algae
 
i have some snails, i dunno what type they are though, but they do eat the algae...

OH

One more thing, the snails are almost all FUZZY, that is they have fuzzy algae growing off of them, is this something i should be concerned with?
 
no, the algae on the snail shell is nothing to worry about. i have a cerith who has algae on his shell that's about 1/4 inch long. it's normal. also, it sounds like you have bubble algae. the best thing to do with that is to try and remove the bubbles without bursting them if you can, becuse upon bursting thousands of spores are released. also, emerald crabs are known for eating bubble algae, but i've heard stories of mixed success, so i suppose it just depends on the individual crab. i have an emerald, and i have no bubble algae. however, i've never seen any in my tank, so either i don't have any at all or my emerald keeps it under control. good luck!
 
can you identify what kind of snali it is? how many do you have? also, dont depend entirely on the snails. they are just there to help. Its up to you to scrub the tank down real good. also, its just a phase that all marine tanks go through. so dont stress too much. you are doing nothing wrong. good luck scrubbing! :)
 
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