Brown Algae ?

[pjdaley]

Obviously my book on, coarl, and fish, etc hasn't arrived yet, but on my brown rock, I belive that it is brown algae, and over nivht it spread on the live sand all the way from one side of the tank to the other, my cleaning crew is in the mail and should arrive tomarrow, is this a normal thing for a new tank?

 

[tmtoucan]

What kind of water did you put in your tank? (RO, tap, etc. )

 

[jbk65]

New tanks while cycling will almost always build up brown algae and as cycle ends should dissapate.
Very Normal

 

[paulcoates]

I use tap water, and my cleanup crew is taking care of the brown algae (diatoms)

 

[pjdaley]

tap water :-x Alright, cleaning crew should be here soon!!

 

[tmtoucan]

The brown algae is very normal in a new tank and as long as your clean up crew is doing there job you got nothing to worry about. Although I would recomend either using RO water or Distilled or Dieonized simply because your tap water will have lots of phospherates as well as other minerals which will cause your algae to flourish

 

[~sc~emt~]

yeah I would say defintly use RO water.

 

[jbk65]

Be real careful with staight distilled. Some companies use copper pipes in their distilling process which could be disasterous for the tank.

 

[pjdaley]

thanks, I will do that next time

 

[pjdaley]

so what brand should I buy ? or where can I get the "correct" water for it. Do I also need to add more salt to the tank, or just more water?

 

[jbk65]

Brand of RO doesn't really matter. The ultimate would be to spend 100 and change and buy and RO/DI filter and make your own. Aside from that, I buy my RO only from Walmart. Pay 42 cents a gallon.
When you are topping off, add just water as salt does not evaporate. When you are changing water mix the water with salt first and run with a powerhead or something overnight so it is mixed well, aerated and the PH balances.
JBK