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Are they coralline algae or nasty diatoms?


MK1623

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I am setting up a new marine tank and these green and yellow algae have started to appear on live rocks all of a sudden.  Are they coralline algae or nasty diatoms?  Should I decrease the light? Could someone give me some advise how to control them?  

 

The tank is only one week old and just live rocks at the moment. 

 

I am still waiting for the test kits for calcium, carbonate, water hardness and phosphate.  So, I do not have those results yet.   Maybe, too much phosphate?  

 

 

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You have two algaes going on. Your brown algae is almost assuredly diatom algae. The second is regular old green algae, some of which are coraline and some which aren't. Your variety appears to be the former. All of these algae growths are totally normal and a natural progression of NTS (new tank syndrome). 

 

What I would do is to go ahead and start doing regular 15% water changes using RO/DI water. See if you can get those nitrates below 5 ppm and then once you do, start adding members of your clean up crew (CUC) to take care of those diatoms and other algaes. I'd suggest a mix of snails and inverts. My favorite snails are cerith snails, trochus snails and smaller sized turbo grazers. 

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T

16 minutes ago, OPtasia said:

You have two algaes going on. Your brown algae is almost assuredly diatom algae. The second is regular old green algae, some of which are coraline and some which aren't. Your variety appears to be the former. All of these algae growths are totally normal and a natural progression of NTS (new tank syndrome). 

 

What I would do is to go ahead and start doing regular 15% water changes using RO/DI water. See if you can get those nitrates below 5 ppm and then once you do, start adding members of your clean up crew (CUC) to take care of those diatoms and other algaes. I'd suggest a mix of snails and inverts. My favorite snails are cerith snails, trochus snails and smaller sized turbo grazers. 

6

Thank you very much for your kind advice.  So, the brown/yellow one is diatom algae..... and the green one is Coraline algae, which is good.  Thank you.  


At the moment, I still do not know where I could get RO/DI water yet but I will try to find them.  I have been using tap water with water conditioner.  

I will also start looking for snails.  Thank you very much indeed.  

 

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I just tested the level of Nitrate in the tank and it is 0ppm before changing water now.  So, nitrate became 0 ppm without changing the water.  I hope this is a good sign and my fish tank is doing OK.  
 

Since my fish tank is a small 60l nano tank, I am wondering whether it is worth getting a Reverse Osmosis water filter.  I have been using tap water with water conditioner and Red Sea Coral Pro Salt. 

 

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AlmightyJoshaeus

I am pleased that your tank is going well, but I would recommend slowly switching to RO or distilled water soon - even if the water lacks nitrates, it could contain other compounds (I.E phosphates) that could encourage excess algae growth (learned this the hard way). Also, to help control algae growth (and if you don't already have one), how about you get an electrical timer? A consistent 8 hr photoperiod would do the tank a lot of good.

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1 hour ago, AlmightyJoshaeus said:

I am pleased that your tank is going well, but I would recommend slowly switching to RO or distilled water soon - even if the water lacks nitrates, it could contain other compounds (I.E phosphates) that could encourage excess algae growth (learned this the hard way). Also, to help control algae growth (and if you don't already have one), how about you get an electrical timer? A consistent 8 hr photoperiod would do the tank a lot of good.

Thank you very much for your advice.  I will get a timer and set it to 8 hours per day.  Thank you!!!
 

Regarding the RO water filter system, it sounds like that it would be better if I get it now in the long run, rather than getting those nitrate and phosphate removal products.   I will start to look at them.  My concern is that they look all complicated and difficult to install and I am not sure whether I can install it by myself.  Keeping a small marine fish tank seems much more difficult than I imagined. 

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6 hours ago, MK1623 said:

T

Thank you very much for your kind advice.  So, the brown/yellow one is diatom algae..... and the green one is Coraline algae, which is good.  Thank you.  


At the moment, I still do not know where I could get RO/DI water yet but I will try to find them.  I have been using tap water with water conditioner.  

I will also start looking for snails.  Thank you very much indeed.  

 

The green you have isn’t coralline. 

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1 minute ago, xthunt said:

The green you have isn’t coralline. 

Thank you very much.  I misunderstood it owing to my poor English.  I am sorry.  

 

So, it is nasty algae?  It looks like that I have two unwanted algae..... I think that I should get an RO water filter system.  Thank you very much for letting me know it.  

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3 hours ago, xthunt said:

The green you have isn’t coralline. 

What makes you say that?  OP, rub it with your thumb. If it stays on its coraline. Ime, coraline starts off with greens and yellows and reds and the purple usually takes over from there. 

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AlmightyJoshaeus

Have you thought of getting macro algae? 'Macros' help reduce nutrient levels and - best I can tell - don't need to wait for your cycle to finish before adding them (someone please correct me if I'm wrong)

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1 minute ago, patback said:

What makes you say that?  OP, rub it with your thumb. If it stays on its coraline. One, coraline starts off with greens and yellows and reds and the purple usually takes over from there. 

It stayed!!!  The brown/yellow algae come off very easily with a toothbrush, but the green one stays.  So, is it coraline algae?  

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6 minutes ago, AlmightyJoshaeus said:

Have you thought of getting macro algae? 'Macros' help reduce nutrient levels and - best I can tell - don't need to wait for your cycle to finish before adding them (someone please correct me if I'm wrong)

Thank you!  I did not know macro algae, so I googled it.   I know them and we call it "sea grapes" in my native language!  Thank you!!    I think that macro algae would help to reduce nutrient levels as plants in a freshwater tank would do.  I have not had any algae issues in my freshwater aquariums as I always had enough plants.  At the moment, there are only live rocks in my marine tank.   

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41 minutes ago, patback said:

What makes you say that?  OP, rub it with your thumb. If it stays on its coraline. One, coraline starts off with greens and yellows and reds and the purple usually takes over from there. 

Because I have the same stuff that covered my dry rock within 2 weeks of start up, and it’s not calcified. I think it’s the same algae that dusts the glass. Also, astraea snails can clean it up good. It hasn’t been a nuisance for me, it just colors the rock green, nothing more. It won’t come off with a toothbrush because it sort of etches itself in. You’re not going to have coralline growing in a week old tank. 

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RayWhisperer

Be careful with “sea grapes” that sounds a lot like calurpura. Yes, calurpura is a macro algae, but it’s a very aggressive grower. I would not advise introducing that to your aquarium. Something showier, and less aggressive, like cladophora, or halymenia, would be a better choice, imo.

 

You’re tank is just going through a normal process. If you do regular water changes with saltwater mixed with RODI water, it will eventually balance out. You don’t need to use a macroalgae, if you don’t want to.

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AlmightyJoshaeus
2 minutes ago, RayWhisperer said:

Be careful with “sea grapes” that sounds a lot like calurpura. Yes, calurpura is a macro algae, but it’s a very aggressive grower. I would not advise introducing that to your aquarium. Something showier, and less aggressive, like cladophora, or halymenia, would be a better choice, imo.

 

You’re tank is just going through a normal process. If you do regular water changes with saltwater mixed with RODI water, it will eventually balance out. You don’t need to use a macroalgae, if you don’t want to.

I know she doesn't 'need' macro algae...I just like it :) especially red ones.

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RayWhisperer
4 minutes ago, AlmightyJoshaeus said:

I know she doesn't 'need' macro algae...I just like it :) especially red ones.

I like some of them, too. Some do, some don’t. She’s new, so I’m just letting her know it’s a choice. And hopefully not let her introduce an aggressive growing macro.

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36 minutes ago, xthunt said:

Because I have the same stuff that covered my dry rock within 2 weeks of start up, and it’s not calcified. I think it’s the same algae that dusts the glass. Also, astraea snails can clean it up good. It hasn’t been a nuisance for me, it just colors the rock green, nothing more. It won’t come off with a toothbrush because it sort of etches itself in. You’re not going to have coralline growing in a week old tank. 

Thank you.  I see.  I would not get coralline algae in a week old tank.  How long do I have to wait to see coralline algae start to grow in my tank?  The original coralline on the live rock become white.  Is it also normal?  I bought live rock called "ultra Grade Live Rock" but a majority of the coralline algae turned into white.  

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8 minutes ago, MK1623 said:

Thank you.  I see.  I would not get coralline algae in a week old tank.  How long do I have to wait to see coralline algae start to grow in my tank?  The original coralline on the live rock become white.  Is it also normal?  I bought live rock called "ultra Grade Live Rock" but a majority of the coralline algae turned into white.  

Don’t know how long for the coralline to come back. After a few weeks of having mine up, I had purple spots show up, then they went away. They are now starting to come back again. Mine has been running since late December, but the rock was used in another tank for a few months before that. Here’s what mine looks like now. You can see some purple trying to grow. 

 

 

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RayWhisperer

It turned white because it died off. Probably from being dried out. 

 

Ultra grade is just a name. It means nothing. Any store can call their rock, or name their corals whatever they want. Try not to focus on names. Just learn proper husbandry, buy the best equipment you can afford, research everything before you buy, take it slow, and buy the corals you like. 

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51 minutes ago, RayWhisperer said:

Be careful with “sea grapes” that sounds a lot like calurpura. Yes, calurpura is a macro algae, but it’s a very aggressive grower. I would not advise introducing that to your aquarium. Something showier, and less aggressive, like cladophora, or halymenia, would be a better choice, imo.

 

You’re tank is just going through a normal process. If you do regular water changes with saltwater mixed with RODI water, it will eventually balance out. You don’t need to use a macroalgae, if you don’t want to.

11

Thank you.  Yes, I will have a look at macroalgae and decide whether I would like to have them or not.  Thank you very much indeed. 

It looks like what I need is to buy an RO water filter system and to be patient to wait for the tank going through its process.   Thank you.    I hope I can find a reasonable filter which seems to be enough easy for me to install.  

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9 hours ago, xthunt said:

Don’t know how long for the coralline to come back. After a few weeks of having mine up, I had purple spots show up, then they went away. They are now starting to come back again. Mine has been running since late December, but the rock was used in another tank for a few months before that. Here’s what mine looks like now. You can see some purple trying to grow. 

 

 

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Thank you very much for the photo of your live rock!   The green algae are so pretty♪   I really like it a lot!  If mine becomes like this, I will be very happy!  

I hope my tank become as nice as yours in the future.  Thank you very much, indeed.  

 

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RayWhisperer

Buying an rodi system doesn’t have to be too expensive. Look for used equipment, just make sure that what you find uses the common sized components. In the mean time, you can use distilled water bought from the grocery store, or find an LFS that sells rodi water. It’s not the best option, but it will get you by for the time being.

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8 minutes ago, RayWhisperer said:

It turned white because it died off. Probably from being dried out. 

 

Ultra grade is just a name. It means nothing. Any store can call their rock, or name their corals whatever they want. Try not to focus on names. Just learn proper husbandry, buy the best equipment you can afford, research everything before you buy, take it slow, and buy the corals you like. 

I see.  I bought it because it would be really good one..... never mind.  Anyway, they all died.  ? When they arrived they were wet and there had colours but soon all turned into white.  

As for RO system, I will try to get it one.   Thank you very much for your really good pieces of advice.  Thank you.  

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16 hours ago, MK1623 said:

How about using the things like this to reduce nitrate and phosphate?  Are they any good?

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00P5ABF22/ref=ox_sc_sfl_title_6?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A2MYEVYTNLKQFQ

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Please don't. Products like this can have bad side effects like bacterial blooms which effects oxygen in the water and should only be done with a good skimmer. You can also get the water too clean and starve corals. 

 

They are not really meant for beginners. It only adds more complication and things to monitor for a new hobbiest. 

 

Water changes with GOOD water are what you need. You can buy distilled if needed. 

 

Diatoms will most likely be impossible to control with tap water. I would assume most tap has silicates. The product you linked will not help with silicates anyways. 

 

Get a RODI machine and not just RO. They look complicated but I found the hardware store people helpful when brought in parts and asked them what I needed to get it to attach to my sink. 

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