help please, my tank is over running with brown algea and now my buttin polyps that were green in the center are all turning brown . I,m scared I,m losing them any help would be great thanx
help with brown algea
- Thread starter david emmett
- Start date
How about a little more info? Can you post water test results, what critters you've got in the tank as your cleanup crew, how old the tank is, inhabitants, type of lighting/filtration, etc. etc. etc.? The more we know, the more likely it is you'll get an answer 
my tank is about 3 months old , all my water tests are ok but my amoinia test was alittle high so I did a 1/3 water change yersterday . I have 2 turbo snails and 10 small snails [newvarious] I think sorry about the spelling. 4 damsells , 2 clowns and a leather coral
If your ANY ammonia when you do a test, thats a bad sign, as it means there isnt enough bacteria to handle the bioload
the brown algea is diotoms. This algea is normal for a new tank. diotoms come from phosphates in tap water. my guess is that that is what you use in your tank. if you did that water change with tap water that was not a good thing. what you need to do now is do a water change with RO water only. also there is a product that i use in my 120 gal called phosban that should take care of it. slow down on your stocking you have alot infront of you before you can call your tank stable, after diotoms comes the hair algea and then red bacterail algea but after that it should be a smooth road with the algea.
How large is the tank? If it's a 220g that's not a huge bioload, but if it's a 25g it's an entirely different story! What type of lighting are you using, and how long is the photoperiod? You mention that some polyps are browning, lighting or water conditions could have something to do with it.
Saying 'all water tests are fine' doesn't really tell us anything, it's best to post the exact results. NH3 and NO2 should be 0, PO4 as close to 0 as possible, and NO3 should be as low as you can get it.
The brown stuff may be diatoms, it may also be brown cyano or dinoflagellates. Unless you can paint a full picture of the tank it's really hard to say.
Saying 'all water tests are fine' doesn't really tell us anything, it's best to post the exact results. NH3 and NO2 should be 0, PO4 as close to 0 as possible, and NO3 should be as low as you can get it.
The brown stuff may be diatoms, it may also be brown cyano or dinoflagellates. Unless you can paint a full picture of the tank it's really hard to say.