Algae

[Becki67]

It's me again...you didn't think I'd go away for that long, did you?

I went home yesterday and found brown all over my rocks and over the sand. Should I clean it out? Is it dangerous to the fish?

I read another post just now about purple algae...the guy at the FS told me that the purple algae is good. Is that true?

 

[FNG44601]

Sounds like a Diatom Bloom- Normal part of your tank cycling- no worries! But if its everywhere..... what do you have in terms of circulation (powerheads) and skimmer? Plus u can cut down on your lighting- I'm assuming nothing's in the tank since it's a week old? The purple/pink ENCRUSTING algae is good (coraline) ! not the purple slimy stuff- so you determine what you've got going on

 

[Becki67]

We don't have the skimmer yet. We have two powerheads and a Fluval filter. The tank is almost three weeks old and we have two clowns, two damsels and a little red crab.

We don't have the purple stuff yet...just the brown stuff. Should I scrub it off the rocks and clean the bottom of the tank?

We don't even have our big light on it yet...just your typical fish tank flourescent lights....

 

[cthegame]

You can physically remove as much of the algae as possible increase your water changes a little. hat should help slow it down.

But it will keep coming back until your tank goes thru its algae stages on its own. Basically you can slow it down but all you can really do is wait it out.

 

[Bifferwine]

Cthegame is right, algae blooms (especially diatoms) are normal for a new tank and you'll just have to wait it out. It won't hurt anything.

 

[fatman]

The great thing about brown algae is they use up nutrients that other wise would end up likely supplying green or red algae. The brown algae when it goes away seems to not give back those nutrients they used. Some of the expert coral growers actually encourage brown algae growth through silica supplementation as it does not cause the encroachment problems with coral that green algae do.