Algea Phases

Tommy Gun · 09-26-2006, 07:04 PM

Hello everyone!

So currently I am running a 90 gallon SW tank (see signature for details) and am doing very well as far as keeping my water temp and chemistry healthy for my fish and live rock/sand. However, I am experiencing what seems to be another bout of algea and I have heard that this will happen in phases.

In the begining, I ran through some brown and almost red algea on the back wall of my tank, but nothing serious and nothing on the front or sides of the glass (the back wall is black, if that may have anything to do with it). Currently, I am having some extremely fast algea growth that is a deep brown and can grow on the front and sides of my tank's glass in a matter of an hour or so.

What I am wondering is if this is signaling a problem in my tank or a natural occurance and I can relax. I have been using a tool I bought at an LFS to clean the glass from the inside and it works like a charm. I cannot think of any reason why I should leave it...but just in case....should I remove it?

My phosphate levels are within the lowest range on my test kit's color chart. I have no trace of ammonia nor nitrites with nitrates in the 'color range' of 0.3 ml. I am using Ro water and have a salinity of 1.023 (taken minutes ago). My water temp is typically in the 76 to 78 degree range, however at this time of day, when the lights have been on for a little less than 7 hours, I have a temp of 79 to 80 (hard to be super exact with the thermometer I have right now). I did a water change 6 days ago in the amount of 30 gallons of RO water that was cured for two nights. The salinity of my water change water was slightly lower than the tank to allow for a higher tank salinity to be lowered some (I hope this is ok. I did not top off the tank for two days prior to the water change and the tanks salinity was higer due to evaporation)

Any help would be appreciated.

ahill3780 · 09-26-2006, 11:57 PM

Hey Tommy,

This early in the setup algae is going to happen. There is no telling what is going to set it off, or when, unless you have access to a lab and a chemist to analyze the water for you.

Best thing you can do is keep up with your routine maitenance, and testing. Record your test results so that you can reflect back on them as the algae dies off and grows to see what parameters are changing to influence this.

Using a lower salinity water solution for WCs is fine. I don't add top-off fresh water very often, I just mix my WC makeup water .002 ppm lower than the tank water and incorporate top-offs into my WCs. I will have to change this practice once I start keeping corals because of the higher demand for salinity stability, but with just fish for now I am fine with the swings.

I keep my tank at 1.026 ppm and my salt mix at 1.024 (at 78-80 F). In the week between my water changes about 5 gallons evaporates out of the tank raising the specific gravity to 1.027. I change out about 15-20 gallons on average and add in an extra 5 gallons of salt mix to compensate for the evaporation. This has always resulted in the tank regaining the original SpG of 1.026.

HTH,
Aaron