Infamous BROWN ALGAE !

[rongav]

We have a 14 gallon Nano that has been cycling 15 lbs of cured live rock and activated sand in just moonlight for 5 weeks. The water quality is near perfect, with nitrates around 30.

We purchased a couple of soft coral pieces last week -- OK maybe out of sequence, but I've read elsewhere it was OK to do so. We started the light cycle of 1-hour Actinic before, after and during a 10-hour 10K cycle.

Almost overnight on the 6th day, the live rock was almost totally covered with brown algae. I am not panicking as I know this is common, but still I want to eliminate it.

The only reason I can presume the algae grew so rapidly was that the tank is 10 feet away from a wall of fairly bright windows. My guess is the natural daylight fed the algae big time.

I have since darkened those windows, but would like additional suggestions how to minimize the brown algae. I am off to my LFS to obtain some snails and crabs to start attacking the algae. Any other recommendations?

 

[Lotus]

Brown algae is pretty much inescapable at the end of the cycle. It will go away on its own, and the snails will help. It's not because of the light, it's just the end product of the cycle.

You should do a water change or two to get your nitrates down. The corals won't appreciate nitrates at those levels.

 

[rongav]

Brown algae is pretty much inescapable at the end of the cycle. It will go away on its own, and the snails will help. It's not because of the light, it's just the end product of the cycle.

You should do a water change or two to get your nitrates down. The corals won't appreciate nitrates at those levels.

Thanks Lotus, It was getting like a tomb in here in the darkened state, I'll be sure to keep the water changed to drop the nitrates. Any other suggestions for the nitrates? I've read where the (I forget the name) green bushy algae in a sump or refugium will assist.

 

[Lotus]

Yes, a refugium will help with nitrates, but it's hard to install one on a small tank. As your tank matures, you should find the nitrates naturally drop. Bacteria within the rock will help with this, but it can take 6 months or a year for the tank to mature to this point. Make sure you're stocking lightly and feeding sparingly, and do water changes as necessary to keep the nitrates as low as possible.

 

[AlleyKatt]

Sorry to intrude on this thread, but I had a question. As of tomorrow I will have had my 10g FOWLR up and running for a week, and I've already got brown algae. Could this be from the quality and very short travel time of my LR. The store I bought it from is 5 minutes from my house, and it came out of a display tank that had been running for about a year. My ammo is dropping rather well and the base rock is starting to color up a little as well. I only bought 4 lbs. of the LR because of cost issues and added another 10-12 lbs. of base rock. Is it possible to cycle a tank this fast?, OR am I just seeing a spike in trates or phosphates that have given the brown algae just enough nutrients to grow?