Brown alagae

[Octavarium]

I have this brownish red alage in my GSP's tank, very annoying. It comes off the glass easy, but some is on the gravel now. I just changed the water to lower nitrates and will do so again soon, but is there any other way to get rid of this unsightly alage, I heard nerrite snails won't work. And btw, what is this alage called, I only had green alage in my experience in the past in fresh tanks.

 

[Mako]

I'm not sure what it's called (well, other than names I don't dare repeat here). You can try this trick that an old salt at the lfs taught me for pesky algae: providing that your fish can handle full-salt water (and I think but can't say for sure that GSP's can), raise your salinity to full-sea water SLOWLY over a week or so. Let it stay that way until the algae gives up. Keep water circulation and aeration on the way-high side, as the O2 levels will drop some as salt levels increase.

If it doesn't, drop the salinity back down SLOWLY to near-freshwater (remove the GSP if you think he won't like it) for a while and see what it does.

 

[RTR]

The brown alga common in tanks is diatoms, silicate-shelled brown algae.

If your water is moderate to high in silicates (your utility will know), you can limit diatoms by use of phosphate-absorbing resins such as Phos-Guard, which also absorbs silicates.

You can reduce the visual diatoms by reducing the light to a minimum for your veiwing, or you can trade it for green algae instead by increasing you lighting intensity over up to 12 hours per day.

Major changes in the specific gravity of your tank will be tolerated by the GSP better than the nitrification bacteria - FW and light BW use different nitrification bacteria than high BW to full SW. Too great a change in too short a period can wipe out one form before the other forms can estabish. That will definitely be very bad for your puffer. BTW, there are plenty of full marine diatoms.