Attack of the brown algae

[alienhybridx]

Well something interesting has happened over the past few days there seems to be a lot of brown algae buildup on my sand and was wondering if i can buy any specific hermit crab or snail that would clean it up nicely ? I have chaeto in the main tank and lighting schedule is normal and it's growing slowly but there are phosphates in the water still it seems but nitrates are in check under 30ppm. Thanks !

 

[spiderwoman]

How often do you perform a water change? Also how often do you feed? Have you considered using a phosphate pad or run Phosban to help control phosphates? That is one of the causes for your brown dusting.

 

[mr-toad]

How long has tank been up and has anything happened to cause it to cycle or anything? Usually you don't see baby poo algae in established tanks just pop up unless something has happened bad or you don't have a good cleanup crew. Or you just bought someone who ate your crew....

Picture of whats hapening may also help. Most hermits clean an aragontie bed good, but not sure about fine sand.

 

[alienhybridx]

My tank has been up and running for at least 2 months now and the bulb i used to have was very old and there was barely any algae ...but ever since i got a 10k bulb by coralife on a normal schedule theres brown algae/green and some pink/red especially on my fine sand
i feed two times a day and for a cleanup crew I have about 15 very tiny snails that dig into the sand and 3 small hermits and a shrimp and lobster. for fish i have 2 damsels 1 clownfish and a niger trigger that's very peaceful
everything is in check and it seems like phosphates might be coming from the top off water that I keep adding every week and i've checked for nitrates and its 0 from the source which is a good thing i guess
also there is chaeto in my main tank i trimmed it about 3 weeks ago and its growing back slowly

 

[hlcroghan]

Cut down feeding to one time a day......and you can skip a day here and there......won't hurt at all. How long are the lights on for? And....add more cuc. Turbo snails, nassarius snails, astreas. they all work well for this.

 

[errattiq]

need pics. Could just be an initial diatom bloom.

 

[wilsonreef]

Sounds like a diatom bloom to me also..very common in new tanks. When the tank finally completely cycles it will go away.