brown alage

[ladies man 246]

i set up a new tank around christmas, 40 gallon, and now this brown alage is forming on the sand and on the rocks. Some of it's even green! My water qualities are fine. I have a dottyback, marron clown, marine beta, purple tip anemone, and a pagoda. please help!

 

[devil dog]

Get some snails that will help... how long do you run your lights?

 

[ladies man 246]

from 7am to 8pm

 

[murf48]

Snails, Hermits, Starfish, Lots of them ! !

 

[dkw27]

Originally Posted by Ladies Man 246
from 7am to 8pm
That's a long stretch...You might want to cut down to 8 hours a day....Algae growth will be less...

 

[ninjamini]

This is normal for a tank that is...wait your tank is only 1 month old? Was the rocks/sand from an established tank?
Anyway this is part of the cycle. Last stage of the blooms. Its actually a bacteria that is consuming nitrates. Water changes to get nitrated and phosphates down and also more flow to that area.

 

[rcoultas]

Those are diatom algae blooms - if your cycle is complete then you will need to do water changes to get your nitrates down to 20 or less - you should also decrease the length of the lighting cycle.