Sudden Algae Problem

ZSellers

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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
 

Crabs McJones

I'm so shi-nay
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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
Welcome to R2R!!
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Algae blooms in a new tank are perfectly normal. However if it's getting really bad you'll have to go through and see where your tank is getting excess nutrients from. What are your phosphate levels, When's the last time your ro/di filters were changed out, how much and how often are you feeding, what is your lighting schedule and what type of light are you using. You could try bumping your water changes up to 10-20 percent every week. Dry or live rock and if dry where did it come from. Are you running a skimmer? You can always try running a biopellet reactor, algae reactor, or implement a refugium to remove the nutrients and starve out the algae. Or if it's a bacteria you can try running chemiclean.
#reefsquad any other suggestions for our new user? :)
 

Big G

captain dunsel
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+1 ^^^ Normal "new tank uglies". Specifically the algae cycles: diatoms > bright green algae on rocks > next . . . . various types of GHA on your rocks. The first two will go away by themselves, as long as your water parameters and lighting are normal. The next algaes are the subject of numerous almost endless debates. I use a toothbrush, turn up the powerheads to full, change filter socks after brushing, at least twice a week with w/c. And it doesn't hurt to introduce a small CUC at that time. So it's time to Qt some CUC for the next phase. And then consider adding some fish that can do some of the work for you: sand sifting goby, algae eaters: Starry Blenny, Foxface, small tangs, etc. Hope this helps a bit. Cheers!
 
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ZSellers

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I don’t have a phosphate tester and from what I have read should probably get one. I haven’t change the Ro/di filters but they shouldn’t even be close to replacement time yet. I got my dry rock from a local store but it didn’t cause any problems and been in there for some time now. The light is my next purchase, right now it’s just a cheap one I had on a freshwater and it run about 8-10 hours per day. I don’t run a skimmer because I don’t have a sump, run 2 canister filters. Moving soon and didn’t want to setup to breakdown. My fish eat all the food that is placed in the tank.
 

Big G

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nautical_nathaniel

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Welcome to R2R! :D

As others have said, it's a common thing with new tanks, just keep at it with the regular water changes and checking the parameters and you'll be fine :)
 
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