Brown algae in My Salt Water Tank.

[CbaileySW]

HI to all, I need so expert advice. I have a 50 gallon Salt water tank. My occupants are 35lbs of Live Rock Two P. Clowns and one snail. I have two Aqua 110 filters that hang off the side. I have upgraded them with Aqua Chargers and use Detox 2 for my carbon. The tank has been set up for two months now. My question is; I am having a brown algae bloom and it is every where in my tank. I have tanking steps in cleaning it. But nothing seems to work. I spoke to my local store where I purchased the tank and they gave me some chemical called Chemi-Clean.undefined The only thing that seems to work is my one snail that hitched a ride into my tank on the live rock. Should I add more snails? Please help me.

Thank you.

 

[Gealcath]

If you have lots of brown algae, you might want to check Nitrate and Phosphate levels. Although snails like Turbo Snails will eat the brown stuff, as will other types of grazers.

 

[wayne]

Diatom algae maybe? Using tapwater? Do you have volcanic tuff rocks in there

 

[mogurnda]

Sounds like diatoms, like Wayne said. Have you only got one snail? Depending on the species, I'd add about 10-20 more.

 

[david j kushman]

Sounds like diatoms. Pretty much normal for non-matured tanks. While unsightly is part of the process. Take baby steps and lots of patience. At the onset of the diatom outbreak on my newest tank (about 6 wks into the break in period) I added my skimmer, and 3 blue legged hermits. A few weeks later the diatoms appeared to stabilize and begin to recede, although I still have them on the back glass, which is the only area I do not touch. Leaving some diatom/algae growth allows some of those nutrients that diatoms thrive on to be used so that balance is attained. Make sure you don't overfeed as well. I can't afford an RO/DI unit and I am using these techniques to "make do" with tapwater (which has relatively high silicates/phosphates). Read, read, read and have patience.

 

[RollendChang]

My Dads tank had this broblem and it had to do with the fact that the tank needed a day cycle because the lites were on to much his tank grew algae but as soon as he set his tank light on a timer it cleared up.