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Brown Algae

K

KennyZush

Hi,
Anyone out there know any natural enemy's of brown algae?
It seems to be coating the rock in my tank. My worry is damage to corals if the growth continues. My blue claws and scarlet hermits don't seem to be interested in it.
I have cut back on the hours of light, and the amount of food for the fish.
I also added a phosphate remover pouch to see it that could help.
I broke down and tried Algone, but my leather coral started acting funny. It pulled in and lost some of its color. I removed it (the algone) after about 24 hours.

I use RO water for my water changes, and all water quality numbers are fine.

Anyone know how to beat this stuff?

Thanks,
Kenny Z.
 
I

IrradiatedReef

Brown algae likes 3 things, light, nitrate and silicates. You have to starve the algae to get rid of it. First thing I would do is check your nitrates. if you have any reading at all, do a 10% water change every day for a few days and use a nitrate sponge in your sump/filter. When doing the water change, use a vacuum to suck out as much algae as you can into a bucket until you reached your desired amount of water for the change. Once your nitrates are 0 or almost non existant maintain that for a while and the algae should disappear.

Silicates on the other hand are dificult to get rid of. Major cause is using play sand from home improvement stores.

Hope this helps you and your plight!
 
K

KennyZush

Thanks for the reply.

I will be stepping up my water changes (normally 10% every other week).
Nitrates have normally been at zero, but recently they have crept up a little, but the algae was a problem before that. Water changes couldn't hurt!

The Algone seemed to work a little, I saw some of the algae pulling away from the rock and crushed coral on the bottom of the tank. I don't know if that is what hurt my leather coral or if it was just a coincidence. But I abandoned it after a short time.

Is there anything out there that eats the stuff? My turbos and crabs just seem to leave it alone.

Thanks again.

Kenny Z.
 
I

IrradiatedReef

I always feel that any product like Algone is a crutch. Unless you find the cause of the algae, it will keep coming back. Good news is brown algae blooms are rather common in newer tanks and usually go away on their own after a few weeks. In most cases, it is caused by over feeding a new tank. New tanks cannot handle overfeeding because the benificial bacterias are not fully established and the food does not get removed properly. Left over food means algae has something to munch on. A good rule to follow is all of your fish should be able to eat all of the food you give them in less then one minute and no food should reach the bottom. This is assuming your using flake food. I give flake normally and give frozen/live treats every other day. If you have predators like Lion Fish, spot feed and removes any bits left over when he is done.
 
K

KennyZush

Good points...
Originally I was alternating live/flake every other day, but recently I have been feeding frozen food every day. I was also told that I should allow five minutes of eating time, this could also be a big problem. I do not have any predators, just angels, a tang, clowns, and a Mandarin. I am going to start alternating the food and even scale it back a bit. (I have been doing two cubes of frozen once a day - now with second thoughts.)
Thanks for the advise. Not sure if you plan on attending the meeting Saturday, but my wife and I will be there to meet some of you and pay our dues to make honest members out of us!

Kenny Z.
 
I

IrradiatedReef

This is the feeding schedule we recommend to people at my store. The biggest thing I see, especially with new fish hobbyists, is they overfeed. I can understand this, you look at them eat and think, "That just doesnt look like enough!" At the store we give flake once in the morning and once at night. I wouldn't even call it a pinch of food. I would call it 2-3 flakes per fish. Oh, if a fish does not come to the surface do not try to drop the food down to him. You want the fish to get hungry and come up to get it. 99.9% of the time, that fish just is not hungry and that food will just sit there.
 
mfisher2112

mfisher2112

I agree with the limited feeding. I usually recomend to new customers a limited feeding regiment until they get really comfortable with their fish and what they will and can eat. The best thing to do is to watch closely as you feed the first few times so you get a good handle on what they will eat right away.

The other thing is to try to be consistent about the time of day you feed. I know that's tough to do sometimes with schedules the way they are these days, but the fish at my store all seem to know exactly what time feeding time is. Its comical to walk over there at 7am and see darn near every fish at the top of the tank darting back and forth waiting for the food to come! hehe.

In my tanks, I try to feed at the same spots every day too. It gets the fish used to coming to the same spot in the tank for food, and it helps with clean up if I do overfeed. Plus, my hermits know where the left over food is going to drop and they usually come running out to scrounge around on the sand and rock to pick it up.

I fought the algae. It sucked. It took nearly 2 months to beat, but I beat it. Have faith! If you find the root cause and correct it, you will beat it too! ;D
 
R

RevClyburn

Also

sometimes it's the food we feed our fish that create algae blooms. Be it frozen or flake, they can be the culprit, and we never look at them. Check them, you'll be surprised what some of them have, high in phosphate and nitrates. I would also slow down on the feeding. My wife is a sucker for my few fish. The press up on the glass, she wants to feed them, good lawd, no, lol. I feed mines every other day, and sometime once every 3 days. I know, somebody's going to call the fish poice on me for neglect. But, they have been fine, and are quite healthy doing this. I change up everytime I feed them, one day flake, then frozen, then pellets. And a pinch does go a long way, it doesn't require a lot. One thing I noticed was I started using cyclopeeze, and I started getting brown algae on my sand. I guess I overfed my tank with that stuff. I have since cut back on it, once a week, and just a dip, that's it. Anybody have the same reaction from Cyclopeeze?

rev
 
AngelPete

AngelPete

someone told me to strain the liquid from the frozen cubes in a net then feed the food. the liquid holding the food together is not eaten and only adds waste to the tank.

Peter
 
JohnS_323

JohnS_323

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
RevClyburn said:
Anybody have the same reaction from Cyclopeeze?
Click to expand...

We had a similar experience with cyclopeze when we first started up our 65. I don't remember the specifics but I know it wasn't good and it was related to feeding too much cyclopeze. What I do remember is pulling out the filter pads and they were completely RED. Hmmmmm . . . OK maybe we did overfeed a bit!
 
R

RobNJ

this might sound crazy, but whenever i have had a brown algea out break, and it has only been a few times, i take my old canister filter, toss in a chemipure and a phosban sack and run it for a few days and poof its gone.
 
K

KennyZush

I am definitely going to limit the feedings a bit and bump up the water changes. Hopefully, over time, this will work out.

A chose to add some more blue leg hermits, a few emerald crabs and a couple of peppermint shrimp to help assist the cleanup crew.

Does anyone have a recommendation as to how many blue legs are "enough" in a reef tank? I have heard as many as one per gallon.

Any thoughts?

Kenny Z.
 
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