I am new to the saltwater aquarium hobby and havent had any problems until now.
Started tank beginning of october 2017, 13.5 gallon fluval. Mid November I upgraded to a 55 gallon using extra cycled media from the small tank, caribsea live sand, and additional dry rock. The first week of the new aquarium I had a spike in ammonia but has been zero since along with nitrate, nitrite, and a pH of 8.2. I check my water twice a week and use RO/DI with 10-20% change every other week. Over the next few weeks I added 2 clownfish, 6 hermit crabs, and couple weeks ago I added a green star polyp.
The problem: beginning of this week when i got home from work my tank was suddenly brown in 8 hours(diatoms?), everything from sand to rock and powerheads. Today i got home and there is a light green, almost florescent, algae covering many of the rocks.
What could be some causes of the sudden algae outbreak and is there anything i can do to help it.
ammonia 0
nitrate 0
nitrite 0
ph 8.2
temp 78
lighting is not the best but will be upgrading soon
1350 gallon per hour flow
Started tank beginning of october 2017, 13.5 gallon fluval. Mid November I upgraded to a 55 gallon using extra cycled media from the small tank, caribsea live sand, and additional dry rock. The first week of the new aquarium I had a spike in ammonia but has been zero since along with nitrate, nitrite, and a pH of 8.2. I check my water twice a week and use RO/DI with 10-20% change every other week. Over the next few weeks I added 2 clownfish, 6 hermit crabs, and couple weeks ago I added a green star polyp.
The problem: beginning of this week when i got home from work my tank was suddenly brown in 8 hours(diatoms?), everything from sand to rock and powerheads. Today i got home and there is a light green, almost florescent, algae covering many of the rocks.
What could be some causes of the sudden algae outbreak and is there anything i can do to help it.
ammonia 0
nitrate 0
nitrite 0
ph 8.2
temp 78
lighting is not the best but will be upgrading soon
1350 gallon per hour flow