turtlesaltlife
New Member
Hi, I am new to this forum and am hoping that someone can help me out!
I have a 120 gal tank that has been set up since the end of August '14 and have been battling brown algae since the end of February that is all over my sand, on my rock, starting on the glass and have a little bit in my sump. I am not new to salt tanks; I have a 29 gal tank that has been set up for well over 2 years now.
I have a shallow sand bed, roughly 140 lbs of live rock, 2 power heads and a wave maker, sump system with a reef octopus protein skimmer and two hanging full spectrum lights.
My live stock includes 2 clowns, pygmy angel, flame angel, red stripped angel, purple fire goby, 2 cleaner shrimp, wrasse, snowflake eel, 2 damsels, bangaii cardinal, couple snails and hermits and a bubble tip anemone w/porcelain crab that recently split. Yes I know that some angels do tend to fight but everyone gets along in my tank including my eel. When I got her she was young and very small so she has grown with my fish and doesn't bother anyone. All of my fish are growing (most of at least doubled in size since I got them) and look very healthy.
I have my lights on timers; day lights are on for 8 hours a day and I typically turn the blue lights off at night every few days. I keep my water temp around 80. I do roughly 28 gal water changes about every 3 weeks where I add marine conditioner and a calcium booster each time. I change my sock filters roughly once a week as well as clean my protein skimmer.
I have tried dosing the tank with chemi-clean and it did absolutely nothing for the algae. I contacted my LPS and they suggested trying TLC Marine SAT. I dosed the tank once a week for 3 weeks per the directions and it would seem to help for a day or so then right back to the way it was. I have tried dosing my tank with Red Sea nitrate/phosphate reducer with no change in the algae. I have tried cutting my lighting times back clear to complete black outs. I have taken out my rock and scrubbed the algae off twice now as well as skimmed the top layer of sand off twice now (to the extent that I need to add sand now).
I feed twice a day alternating between pellets and frozen brine &/or mysis shrimp for the fish and anemone and my eel loves dried krill.
My water levels have stayed pretty steady w/nitrates & nitrites ranging between 5-10, phosphates around 0.25, calcium ranging between 360-380, alkalinity has been just a hair high around 8/9dKH.
I just do not know what else to do!! I have thought about doing a complete sand change but am afraid of putting my tank back into a new cycle. I have plans of adding corals to this tank but can't and will not until I can get rid of this extremely annoying and very frustrating algae!! :frusty:
If anyone has any suggestions or remedies I am all ears! I do not want to scratch everything with this tank and start over! My tanks are my passion and hobby. I have been in love with salt life ever since I became a diver and went diving in the Florida Keys!
Thanks in advance for any advice!
I have a 120 gal tank that has been set up since the end of August '14 and have been battling brown algae since the end of February that is all over my sand, on my rock, starting on the glass and have a little bit in my sump. I am not new to salt tanks; I have a 29 gal tank that has been set up for well over 2 years now.
I have a shallow sand bed, roughly 140 lbs of live rock, 2 power heads and a wave maker, sump system with a reef octopus protein skimmer and two hanging full spectrum lights.
My live stock includes 2 clowns, pygmy angel, flame angel, red stripped angel, purple fire goby, 2 cleaner shrimp, wrasse, snowflake eel, 2 damsels, bangaii cardinal, couple snails and hermits and a bubble tip anemone w/porcelain crab that recently split. Yes I know that some angels do tend to fight but everyone gets along in my tank including my eel. When I got her she was young and very small so she has grown with my fish and doesn't bother anyone. All of my fish are growing (most of at least doubled in size since I got them) and look very healthy.
I have my lights on timers; day lights are on for 8 hours a day and I typically turn the blue lights off at night every few days. I keep my water temp around 80. I do roughly 28 gal water changes about every 3 weeks where I add marine conditioner and a calcium booster each time. I change my sock filters roughly once a week as well as clean my protein skimmer.
I have tried dosing the tank with chemi-clean and it did absolutely nothing for the algae. I contacted my LPS and they suggested trying TLC Marine SAT. I dosed the tank once a week for 3 weeks per the directions and it would seem to help for a day or so then right back to the way it was. I have tried dosing my tank with Red Sea nitrate/phosphate reducer with no change in the algae. I have tried cutting my lighting times back clear to complete black outs. I have taken out my rock and scrubbed the algae off twice now as well as skimmed the top layer of sand off twice now (to the extent that I need to add sand now).
I feed twice a day alternating between pellets and frozen brine &/or mysis shrimp for the fish and anemone and my eel loves dried krill.
My water levels have stayed pretty steady w/nitrates & nitrites ranging between 5-10, phosphates around 0.25, calcium ranging between 360-380, alkalinity has been just a hair high around 8/9dKH.
I just do not know what else to do!! I have thought about doing a complete sand change but am afraid of putting my tank back into a new cycle. I have plans of adding corals to this tank but can't and will not until I can get rid of this extremely annoying and very frustrating algae!! :frusty:
If anyone has any suggestions or remedies I am all ears! I do not want to scratch everything with this tank and start over! My tanks are my passion and hobby. I have been in love with salt life ever since I became a diver and went diving in the Florida Keys!
Thanks in advance for any advice!
