Hey everyone, I recently adopted a family friend's tank because they didn't want it anymore and am back in the hobby full swing now. The first (and last) tank I had was 11 years ago which was a 55 gallon mixed reef. I'm planning on posting a build thread soon!
I have recently had a bit of an algae bloom and I'm not sure if this is just the ugly phase (which I am fine with) or if this is a nuisance algae that I should try to treat. I also understand that depending on the type of algae there are things that you should and shouldn't do. I don't want to misdiagnose and do the wrong thing to make it worse.
The tank is about a month and a half old and has a combination of cured live rock and old live rock from the previous tank (I had to buy a new tank because it cracked on the move). The sand is new as well. I bought a red sea 50 led about two and a half weeks ago and put it on acclimation mode. Had it ramp up from about 40% up to now where the peak is 95%. The light spends most of the day ramping up and down. I have corals so turning this off isn't an option.
The algae itself is gold/translucent and will grow on top of coraline as well. It's been the same for about a week and a half now and hasn't gotten really any better or worse. I tested my nutrients and they are zero for phosphate and nitrate. Before the algae, I was keeping the levels around 3ppm for Nitrate and 0.05 Phosphate.
So my question is what type of algae is this? Chrysophytes? I have ideas of what to do but am curious if I should just leave it and let the tank sort it out or intervene.
I have recently had a bit of an algae bloom and I'm not sure if this is just the ugly phase (which I am fine with) or if this is a nuisance algae that I should try to treat. I also understand that depending on the type of algae there are things that you should and shouldn't do. I don't want to misdiagnose and do the wrong thing to make it worse.
The tank is about a month and a half old and has a combination of cured live rock and old live rock from the previous tank (I had to buy a new tank because it cracked on the move). The sand is new as well. I bought a red sea 50 led about two and a half weeks ago and put it on acclimation mode. Had it ramp up from about 40% up to now where the peak is 95%. The light spends most of the day ramping up and down. I have corals so turning this off isn't an option.
The algae itself is gold/translucent and will grow on top of coraline as well. It's been the same for about a week and a half now and hasn't gotten really any better or worse. I tested my nutrients and they are zero for phosphate and nitrate. Before the algae, I was keeping the levels around 3ppm for Nitrate and 0.05 Phosphate.
So my question is what type of algae is this? Chrysophytes? I have ideas of what to do but am curious if I should just leave it and let the tank sort it out or intervene.