brown algae

[reefan]

Ok heres the deal its not a problem in a nano but I like this board the most so ill ask you. I have a 210 with one coral so far and about 250+ lbs of live rock. I am using a trickle filter,carbon,machanacle,soon to remove trickle and add a red sea prizm pro skimmer and uv light. My problem is a ton of brown algae. I have 7 turbo snails and about 35 hermits. One giant hermit and a queen chonch. I am using 4 55w pc's. And a 48in normal flurecent. Ph is fine Does anyone know the cause-cure for this problem. I have herd of the 1 hermit for every gallon slowly been adding more and more

Thanks,

JJ

[Dave ESPI]

RODI WATER?

AGE OF TANK?

BIOLOAD? Other than the one coral

SALT BRAND?

SUPPLEMENTS?

 

Off the bat Id say its just the normal diatom alga cycle starting. seems like your lighting is a tad underpowered fer a 220.

Id start there AFTER adding the skimmer.

HTH ... UPDATE AWAITED.

[cmv]

(note: i don't even have a salt water tank let alone a reef tank, so take this with a big 'ol grain of mighty tasty seasoning salt with a minced prawn)

 

4x55+40= ~ 1.24w/gallon

 

We all know the watts per gallon isn't some law to be followed to the death, or even followed very closely at all, but jeeze... 1.24 watts per gallon is horrible. I'd use 4x55w on a 55 gallon tank, maybe... I'm planning on using 2x55w on a 20H and I'm wondering if I have enough light.

 

There is no way you have enough light...

 

edit: the point where I don't realize that prizm makes more than one protein skimmer (just ignore this little bit, hehe):

Moving on, that skimmer is a mini one, right?  Sounds awfully small for a 210g.  Maybe decent on a 20, pushing it for anything beyond, but 210!  Jeeze again..

.

 

If I were you, I'd be buying more lights ASAP and then, after getting mucho lighting, a better skimmer (maybe, maybe it will work ok with the little one). But definately investigate the lighting situation... In the meantime, maybe you could put all your rock, or most of it, on one side of the tank and put all the 55w tubes over that rock. That'd be semi-decent at least...

 

(Remember the big grain of seasoning salt, get more opinions from others as I have no actual experience, just mucho reading over the years)

[reefan]

First off Id like to say I am aware of lights per gallon! It is a slower process lighting a 210 on a limited buget. I plan to put either 2 MH's or two more 110w fixtures over the tank. Now on to the protien skimmer. NO it is not rated for 20 gallon it is rated for 300 gallons I added it christmas day. I am very happy with it best skimmer I have had! What i dont understand is that you advise more light with a daitom algae problem? Heres the story on the age of my tank. It was about 4 years old then purchased by me. I had it about 6 months then added the 4 55w pc's I use RO/DI water. Bio load-seargant major,4stripped damsel,3spot damsel,leamon peel angle fish, 3 firefish, fox face lo,yellow tang,x-mas wrass,daisy coral sps,tourch coral. The corals were added by me along with the wrass before the algae problem. No supplements added yet not needed acording to tests. Instant ocean and coralife are used for salt. Brown algae seems to start clearing up. BTW I am aware this is a large bio-load for this stage but most of it came with the tank.

Thanks for the info

JJ

[reefan]

BTW all parameters look good.

[cmv]

reefan: Sorry man, I was just searching on eBay for prizim skimmers and I found that they made a bunch of different sizes. I had ASSumed that prizim was the model name. Doh!

 

From your description it sounds like your going in the right direction to me. I'd be hard pressed to pass up on a big tank for a good price even if it didn't have the exact lighting I wanted.

 

Hope I didn't offend you with my post. It just read into your original post that maybe you didn't realize that the lighting was a tad low . I should'a just asked instead of writing up a long reply.

 

edit: Hopefully someone will come in and offer some advice about your algae problem. My only point about the lights is that, unless you are only keeping really really low light corals, many would advise you to have more. As to adding during an algae bloom, I dunno... As I said, I have no experience with saltware, only freshwater.

[reefan]

No prob cmv. You said you were setting up a 20h is that gona be reef? Yeah the tank had standard normal output lights. That was ok for a while. Lets me start slowly on such a costly lighting setup. I'd like to see two MH's go on it but ill see maybe ill add more pc's. Still thinking if I want my 65 to be reef or FO.??? And if anyone is trying to get rid of any MH's at a reasonable price let me know. I am fearing that ill add more lights and start the bloom all over again:( Any input would be great thanks all

JJ

[cmv]

Yep, the 20H will be a reef. I'm going with either a 15 or a 20H. Same dimensions on top so if I got the 15, I could upgrade to the 20H later without having to rig up a new canopy...

 

I ordered two books from Amazon.com:

 

"Natural Reef Aquariums: Simplified Approaches to Creating Living Saltwater Microcosms"

John H. Tullock, Martin A. Moe

 

"The New Marine Aquarium: Step-By-Step Setup & Stocking Guide"

Michael S. Paletta

 

I'm going to wait until I digest those before buying anything.

 

You should head over to eBay and take a look at what is offered there. There are some deals to be found. I've been thinking of either doing a 2x55w PC or a 150/175w MH on the 20H. The ballasts aren't too bad for MH but the bulb costs are painful .

 

It wouldn't be a bad idea to keep the 65 fish and use your current 55w PCs on a 20H or similar for corals. That would give you more time to save up for MHs or more PCs. I can imagine that is a hard decision though. Good luck!

[Dave ESPI]

Reefan

You answered your own question.

[Fabian Salcedo]

Hi,

I would like to let you know that my aquariums are having some brown algae problem just like yours. I have a 10-gallon Eclipse and 100-gallon fish only tanks. I have been told that the reason why brown alga appears is: high nitrates, quality of water, over feeding, and poor lighting. I just got some MH from Bigalsonline.com and believe me they are worth it. Once I get paid again I will get a clean up crew and I hope this will help me get rid of the brown algae and the red hairy algae. So hope I could have been of some help please answer here or at fsalcedo76@hotmail.com for any further questions. Good luck and have a great day.

Sincerely,

 

Fabian