Algae - the good, the bad, and the ugly

[siniang]

Hi,

I'm in my second attempt (setup) of a saltwater tank (I had a freshwater community tank ages ago). The last time I had the tank up, I tried to reduce algae as much as possible, but I recently learnt on here that "coraline" algae at least is good and welcomed. However, I'm still having a hard time to understand which algae I want and which I don't.

I learnt that purble and brown algae is welcomed and hair algae in controlled ways (I do have a blenny) is no cause for concern. I also do no that I absolutely do not want any kind of floating algae in my tank or slimy algae.

For the past few weeks I had brown algae on the glass and starting to grow on the rocks. However, I also start seeing green algae on the glass - do I need to be worried or just keep my usual routine of removing them when cleaning the glass once a week? I had the tank running for a while inbetween two moves (the second un-anticipated and hence waiting for fish) and ONLY had green algae build up during that time, while before I ONLY had brown...

Thank you kindly

 

[sfin52]

Pics whould help but it could be new tank uglies as well. Could you post your numbers. Due to algae, phosphate numbers are also needed.
What is your lighting period?
Does the tank receive natural sunlight?
What type of water are you using?

 

[cristata.reef]

OK so heres kinda how it goes...

When cycling your tank you WANT diatoms (brown dust coating sand)

After cycle is over you WANT Green Hair Algae (GHA) to show that the cycle is completed

After that the only algae you want is coralline (hard pink,purple, red stuff) and macros that you put in the tank

Cyano, Dinoflagellates, and Bubble algae are never welcome

 

[siniang]

My apologies, I totally lost sight of this thread since I created it as I was travelling.

I think I start seeing purple coralline algae - can it also be green or brown? I have some bright green spots on my rocks (and lesser extent glass) which seems to be harder to scrape off.
I do have a very small amount of green hair algae - which my algae eater (LWB) ignores.
I also get sheets of that - Cyanobacteria? - I clean it up during water changes, but it keeps coming back.
I do have some brown algae (Dinos?) on the tank walls and recently increasingly on the rocks.

 

[cristata.reef]

My apologies, I totally lost sight of this thread since I created it as I was travelling.

I think I start seeing purple coralline algae - can it also be green or brown? I have some bright green spots on my rocks (and lesser extent glass) which seems to be harder to scrape off.
I do have a very small amount of green hair algae - which my algae eater (LWB) ignores.
I also get sheets of that - Cyanobacteria? - I clean it up during water changes, but it keeps coming back.
I do have some brown algae (Dinos?) on the tank walls and recently increasingly on the rocks.

Coralline algae can be green but is almost always either purple, pink, or red.
Green stuff could be coralline algae forming, could be something else. I assume it is dry rock and in that case it is "becoming alive" where algae and bacteria are seeding it which is good. Pics of the cyano and dinos would be helpful if you can provide them

 

[Rich Cooper]

Algae is typical an increase in some parameter that was not intended to be changed. Hundreds of ways to "stabilize" parameters and to keep algae under control. Don't fret it and just be consistent with your maintenance.