? about algae and hair like stuff on live rock

[newtoit]

Our tank has been set up for a little over a week. It contains sand, 7.5lbs live rock, 4 blue legged crabs. The levels are testing 0 so far.

We noticed some hairy like stuff all over the rock and a lot of brown algae on the sand and side of tank. Is this okay?

Our plan is to add one clown fish once the tank cycles,and possibly some shrimp and crabs.

 

Thanks for any advice.

[Caesar777]

Is that hairy stuff green? It's most likely hair algae, and if it's brown, then it could be dinoflagellates.

 

Have you been feeding the tank at all? A week may be a bit soon for so much brown algae (diatoms), BUT it IS normal for there to be lots of algae growth during a tank cycle.

[newtoit]

Its brown hair. Is this bad?? Its everywhere!

[Caesar777]

Hm.... Sounds like dinos. Perhaps a second opinion, anyone?

[newtoit]

So, what do we do???

[ACBlinky]

My tank is very new, and has gone through successive outbreaks - diatoms, hair algae, cyano, and some brown slimy stuff with whips like cyano (dinos, maybe cyano of a different colour?).

I wasn't diligent enough with the HA, thinking the cleanup crew would take care of it, and ended up with a real mess. I started removing algae by hand (and Mag-Float, and toothbrush, and credit card, LOL) and using PhosGuard & water changes to keep PO4 and NO3 as low as possible, as well as exchanging most of my hermits for snails. It seems to have paid off, algae/cyano has been minimal ever since.

Remove as much as you can by hand and limit nutrients, then grit your teeth and get ready to deal with it for a while - I don't think there's any way to completely avoid algae outbreaks in new tanks.