brown covering algea

[songman]

Don't know if these are related or not yet but i want to ask:
I started a couple of days ago putting some additives in my water, which were
essential elements
tech 1
coral excell
coral vite
liquid calcium
pro buffer dKH
i used all as directed, and the next day came home and my rocks looked a little darker and there were little bubbles all over the place. I called my lfs and he told me to brush it all off and the filter will take care of it.
basically what was it, it is gonna return, is there something that will eat it, basically what should i do.
i have an oceanic 75 , reef ready with the model 2 sump. asm g1x skimmer, yellow tang, two clowns, seabae anemonie and some soft corals.
i have 2x250 halides and two 110 vho super acnids. i run the vho's 12 hours a day, of those 12, 8 hours running with the halides.
one other thing, my water temp is around 80-82..
i hope i have given enough data for some good advice. lord knows i need it.

 

[schadiest1]

how long has the tank been up and running? Sounds like it might be diatoms algae. Common in newly setup tanks.

 

[dburr]

Sounds like dead diatom shells. Could be related. Sounds like to me your MH are running longer than needed and adding the extra nutrients to the tank is feeding them. I run my MH 7 hours a day on the SPS tank and only use NO atinics for 12. I don't add any other "coral vitamins" other than the salt.
HTH

 

[songman]

It is definately a new tank. Will the algea stop eventually if i keep brushing it off. Or do i need to do something different.
Should i run the halides for 7 hours only, and never run the vho's.
???????

 

[billb]

The "Tech 1"(iodine), in my opinion, will cause the brown algae. Yes, maybe you would get it in a new tank anyway but this stuff just seems to accelerate and feed it. I tested some out in an experimental tank of mine and everything in the tank was totally brown within days and kept getting worse. I cleaned most of it up , stopped the Tech 1, and it went away...
I wouldn't bother with any additives until the tank has aged a bit..and then only add what you need by testing, and can test what you add!
Save yourself alot of frustration and headaches, don't dose now...
best of luck,
Bill

 

[songman]

thanks bill, i will stop dosing. what do you think about the light setup. should i change it, shorten it a bit.

 

[billb]

I don't think it would hurt, shortening it a bit, maybe an hour or two each day for a week or so.. I'm not a lighting guy (no MH's anyway).. Looks like you have quite a bit of light there though.. I would just ease off the dosing for a while and don't get too over excited and throw a lot of new stuff into the tank just yet... believe me, patience will pay off and you'll be much happier in the long run than falling behind the eightball so to speak and spend all your time trying to correct imbalances.. a newer tank is best left alone....actually, most tanks are...
Best thing to do, is ask first "why" you need to add anything.
What result you expect to attain..
How much, how often.. and how will it affect anything else, (chemistry-wise) in the tank..
How to determine correct dosage and check the levels attained.
Try to deduce whether it was really doing any good, or was it a waste of money (usually the case, on many items..)
I'm speaking from experience..(unfortunatly, I've dosed everything, overdosed mostly) before I learned the biggest lesson out there....Water Changes, Water Changes, Water Changes...The best damn additive available is Water!!!

Cheers,
Bill

 

[maxsmart]

When I went through that, I kept my lighting on 12-14 hours a day. It got real bad for a couple weeks (seemed like ages) then gradually cleared up over the next month. Still keep the lighting on 12 hours a day, now I'm algae-free (almost). I added a couple peppermint shrimp, snails, and crabs during the diatom phase to clean up. (shrimp eat dead things, including those diatom skeletons)