Brown algae help

[bamaborn81]

Hey guys I have brown algae growing in my tank. It has what looks like air bubble coming off of it. I don't have any coralline algae growing on my rocks. I was wondering if it's the precursor to getting coralline algae to grow and let it do it's thing or try and get rid of it? I have a clean up crew in the tank but no fish yet. What are your recommendations? Thanks!

 

[bamaborn81]

Here are a few pictures

 

[Reefing Madness]

New tank? Looks like Diatoms to me. Nothing to be worried about, they will go away by themselves.

 

[bamaborn81]

Yes its a new tank. What would be the best way to start my coralline growth?

 

[rhardman]

Does your clean up crew and any coralline on them? Usually you will see it on some of your snails. If they have some on them it will start growing just take a little time. The one thing that you need to remember is take it slow. If you rush it you will have more problems than you can even imagine. How old is the tank?

 

[zoalover]

The coralline algae will come by itself...it is just one of these things you have to be patient about. As for those brown algae I found cerith snail to be very helpful...

 

[Reefing Madness]

If one of your critters has it on them or you put in a piece of LR that has some on it.
Then, your parameters need to be in order
Alk- 7-10
Cal 380-460
Mag- 1250-1350
And your tank must be very low on phosphates.

 

[mike007]

+1 you need to seed it with something that has coralline growing on it. Also you need to maintain your alk.,mag, ca. levels for it to flourish.

 

[bamaborn81]

It's about 2 months old in all. I have cerith and turbo snails. I also have a emerald crab, porcelain crab, and a banded coral shrimp. There is a BTA and hammer coral in there also. I didn't start getting algae in my tank til I added them. I over fed them and the algae started. Last Sunday my parameters were in great order except mag with was a little high. I am going to do a 10 gal water change tomorrow.

 

[Dylan J.]

From my experience you Live Rock will go through stages, The first stage is all the white you can see will be cover in Diatoms (brown algae) then the next thing with happen will be green turf algae such as cyno, hair algae, and etc. there is no stopping it with a new tank. Now there are clean up crews that and keep it in check but your going to get it. then the next step is that the turf algae will recede then the diatoms come back at this point ur rock is a greenish brown color now soon after that the diatoms recede and your rocks have a greyish tint to them then that when different types of coralline algae will grow successfully.

 

[Dylan J.]

also try sticking to 15%-20% water changes once a week or biweekly if your tank is small enough for it.