Algae Battle

[bryan oestreich]

quick summary. I started a 30g cube back in august 15'. transferred into a 65g in early april 16'. ever since I been battling with brown algae. I went with upgraded LED lights when I went into the 65g. I have 2 16" LED fixtures that are full spectrum 55x3w each. I run them 50% blue and 25% white. blue are on by themselves for an hour before and after white lights. start at 11am blue, 12 blue/white, 8pm blue. 9pm lights completely off. I have 3 powerheads circulating the tank. I believe one is 800gph the other 2 are around 400-500gph. I feed once a day with Mysis and blood worms mainly. I thaw out half a cube of each and 2-3times a week I put phyto and reef frenzy in for corals. my nitrates stay around 15-20ppm. nitrites are 0. my phosphate test expired few weeks back and haven't gotten a new test kit yet.

live stock:
leopard wrasse
1 tru perc
pajama cardinal
purple dottyback
lawnmower blenny
chalk bass

CUC:
4 shrimp: coral banded, cleaner, 2 peppermint
3 super tongan nassarius and some where around 5 trochus snails and about 5 turban snails
3 hermits: a red scarlet and 2 dwarf red tip
brittle starfish

anybody have any ideas why im having trouble with brown algae??

 

[jsker]

I would say, even though you transferred tank with established water, rock, sand you are going to still have a slight cycle. I try to keep my nitrates about 5 to 6ppm and phosphates at about .02 to .04 ppm I feed twice a day with about the same thing you do using a .5 table spoon of food at each feeding. I have been battling green hair and now some red algae. The red from what I have been reading and have back off is from amino acids in the food, and I was also adding amino acids to my for mix. I just put back in a large clean up crew and they are eating away. I have also be messing around with dosing H2O2 and never have seemed to get it right until Monday when a got the dosing schedule right and fresh, not expired H2O2 if the H2O2 dosing really work I should start see a difference by tomorrow. That is my story and I hope that helps

 

[twilliard]

A picture will help out a ton in knowing what the brown algae is

 

[bryan oestreich]

I would say, even though you transferred tank with established water, rock, sand you are going to still have a slight cycle. I try to keep my nitrates about 5 to 6ppm and phosphates at about .02 to .04 ppm I feed twice a day with about the same thing you do using a .5 table spoon of food at each feeding. I have been battling green hair and now some red algae. The red from what I have been reading and have back off is from amino acids in the food, and I was also adding amino acids to my for mix. I just put back in a large clean up crew and they are eating away. I have also be messing around with dosing H2O2 and never have seemed to get it right until Monday when a got the dosing schedule right and fresh, not expired H2O2 if the H2O2 dosing really work I should start see a difference by tomorrow. That is my story and I hope that helps

what are the benefits on dosing h202 and amino acids?

 

[twilliard]

what are the benefits on dosing h202 and amino acids?

This can be a double edged sword depending on what you are dealing with

 

[bryan oestreich]

A picture will help out a ton in knowing what the brown algae is

not my tank but this is off google and this is exactly what my sand is looking like don't think it looks as bad but its that and my glass is covered. I try to clean the front and sides at least every 3 days so you get a good view of tank but the back I do once a week and that is covered by the end of the week cant even see through

 

[jsker]

H2O2 is supposed to kill off green hair algae and the the amino acids are for the health of the corals and fish @twilliard can you please post a link to you thread about H2O2 dosing please

 

[fscbishop]

its a cycle

 

[twilliard]

Diatoms in that picture but your tank is almost a year old
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/back-at-it-peroxide-vrs-cyanobacteria.241002/
Verify that you do not have cyanobacteria

 

[bryan oestreich]

Diatoms in that picture but your tank is almost a year old
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/back-at-it-peroxide-vrs-cyanobacteria.241002/
Verify that you do not have cyanobacteria

isn't cyano red algae? ive had that and its been gone for 2 weeks?

 

[twilliard]

isn't cyano red algae? ive had that and its been gone for 2 weeks?

Cyanobacteria can be a multiple range of color from red to rust to green
Cyanos are also not an algae

 

[bryan oestreich]

Cyanobacteria can be a multiple range of color from red to rust to green
Cyanos are also not an algae

so how do I know if its cyano and not algae?

 

[twilliard]

so how do I know if its cyano and not algae?

That is a great question that I am working on now. Identification without a microscope can be hard.
First, does it form any layers over the sand? If so there is a method I have come up with to help identify this.
Take a cup of tank water and put some of the suspected algae in it.
Take 1ml of 3% peroxide and add to the cup.
In less than 24 hours if it is cyanobacteria it should turn green while leaving the water a pinkish color or in your case a rust color.

If it's an algae like diatoms it won't do this

 

[jiminy_crime]

If this was Cyano you would start to see little gas bubbles on being release from the bacteria.

Looks like diatoms from me. Reduced your light schedule to 7 hours a day for 1 week and bring up an hour each week until back to 10 hrs max. Keep the whiter light to less than 4 hrs a day and the rest keep to mostly blues with lower intensity for the other 6 hrs.

 

[bryan oestreich]

If this was Cyano you would start to see little gas bubbles on being release from the bacteria.

Looks like diatoms from me. Reduced your light schedule to 7 hours a day for 1 week and bring up an hour each week until back to 10 hrs max. Keep the whiter light to less than 4 hrs a day and the rest keep to mostly blues with lower intensity for the other 6 hrs.

do white create more algae than blue. I mean I run my whites for 8 hrs at 25%. cant really go much lower than that. and run my blues for 10hrs. but I will try to do your method only hard part is I work Friday-Saturday 12-13hr shifts. so really hard to stay constant on my photoperiod. some days the lights are on for 12 hrs. I would assume this could be a tying factor