Algae problem

BDeVaney · Nov 15, 2013

I have a 20 gallon tank about 6 weeks old. Today I noticed an accumulation of some brown algae but also a lot of green algae on my live rock. The brown algae I know how to take care of. I have not had any luck getting rid of the green and it has started to spread on all my rocks. It is not growing out like a plant. It is more like just turning all of my rocks green. I bought the rocks live so there is also some coralline algae on them. This green algae is bugging me quite a bit. I check all my parameters and they all seem to be in the proper levels but it keeps spreading. What can I do to kill this stuff off?!

mike007 · Nov 15, 2013

Tank is new and probaly has not cycled completely yet. You will get diatoms and various algaes untill it cycles completey. Be carefull and don't overfeed and you might want to cut your photoperiod down some.

Reefing Madness · Nov 15, 2013

What are the numbers from your tank?
Need Nitrates and Phosphate numbers too.
If your tank is high in phosphates what you will see grow in place of Coralline algae is this green algae, is just as tough to get off of things because its an encrusting algae, just a different color, kinda like Green Dust Algae.

BDeVaney · Nov 15, 2013

My nitrates are practically undetectable with test strips. The phosphates are extremely low as well, almost undetectable with a salifert test kit. I have a couple small frag corals like mushrooms in my tank. Is it ok to cut down the lighting for a few days even though I have those?

GHill762 · Nov 15, 2013

new tank syndrome IMO..

BDeVaney · Nov 15, 2013

Ok well should I just continue to take care of and monitor the tank and the issue will resolve itself?

Reefing Madness · Nov 15, 2013

Let it run its course. A pic of the stuff woukd give us a better idea of what were looking at here. But it may take a couple of months to right itself.