algae?

[halo2go]

i started my tank about a week ago, a newbie to saltwater apparently, all that is in there is live rock and live sand. about 2 days ago a brown furry looking algae crap showed up in a few spots on the LR. now the **** is covering 75% of the LR. When the light comes on it starts to get real stringy and seperates from the rock and floats around the tank. Is this a normal part of the cycle process? or is something gone drastically wrong?

-Tom

 

[Fl_Seagull]

I can relate. My tank is just 10 days old and I have a similar occurance.

I have 125 gal with 20 gal sump, 40 lb of manmade rock, 30 lbs of base rock, 60 of fully cured LR, 50 lbs of sand.

SG 1.024
PH8.2
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 0
Phosphate 0.4
Alk 4 meg/L

I am using tap water not RO/DI.

Few crabs came with the LR and I have added a few turbo snails since my Nitrite and Nitrates have dropped. But, I am waiting to see if I will get a jump in the ammonia in the next week before I start adding any more. I am afraid I might have been fooled by a quick cycle.

 

[Len]

It's pretty normal. What you're seeing is dinoflaggellates. Tanks may take several months to "stablize," so during this time, you will have to be patient. I've seen tanks completely swamped with hair algae or sargassum the first half year and then no algae whatsoever from that time forth. Just make sure you aren't adding excessive nutrients to the tank in the meanwhile. A RO/DI filter for your top off and water change water is really essential in most places (very few have clean tap water).

Hang in there. It will get better. Reefkeeping can be a real excerise in patience.

 

[fredso2003]

More than likely you will expierience several diatomic algae blooms while your tank goes through different cycles.I have personally had 3:1st. one was brown 2nd. was green then the 3rd. and the biggest pain in the ass is the red(cyanobacterial) which believe it or not im told is actually a form of red tide,I was told that it was introduced by some new live rock or some other new creature IE: crabs,snails,hermits.anyway my system is 10 months old and only in the last 8 weeks i have finally got a handle on consistent water quality parameters and finally getting the good coraline algae (purple & pink) to grow! patience,patience,patience.I am learning
to leave it alone and let it happen.But sometimes it can be very trying and frusterating IMO ! GOOD LUCK AND WELCOME TO REEFS.ORG

 

[Anonymous]

Had the same thing in my 90 gal. Three months later thanks to various snails and a few hermit crabs, it has almost dissapeared!

 

[Anonymous]

I am using tap water not RO/DI.

Also noteworthy - RODI filters help reduce the problem of pest algae by removing phosphates (which are a food source for photosynthetic plant life) from your water column.

 

[rich2103]

I have the same problem in my tank but I have finally gotten it under control. I purchased about 5 turbo snails and some different crabs that were just lying around my dealers tanks. Within about two days I saw results. With my corals I add an Additive called Coral Vital. It helps with the growth of coraline algae which has begun to over take the brown algae that is covering the live rocks.