brown alge wont change to green saltwater; 8 weeks old?

Question

the brown alge wont change to green; saltwater; 8 weeks old tank with 3 fishes and am thinkin about puttin a live rock in from the store?

Answer 1

You might be seeing diatoms on your substrate and rock. This is a normal occurrence in a new tank. You may have a problem with too much silicates in your tank/water source.

See the discussion thread and photo in this link: http://www.wetwebmedia.com/brownalgcontfaqs.htm

You can control growth by using lighting, nutrient control, and eliminating silicates from the tank:
http://saltaquarium.about.com/cs/algaecontrol/a/aa091100.htm

Answer 2

Algae in a new tank is very common. The best way to treat it is to do water changes. A large water change right after the cycle helps rapidly reduce the nitrates and phosphates that feed the algae. Doing a 50% water change will show dramatic results. Keep doing regular weekly water changes of 10% of the aquarium volume to keep your nitrates and phosphates down and thus reducing algae growth. Keeping your lights down to 10 hrs per day will also help some with the algae.

Live rock needs no special filtration at all. Live rock is a biological filter itself. Live rock does have corraline algae which will grow and compete with the brown and green algae for nutrients. It's very good stuff to add. Since your aquarium is cycled already you will need to ensure you only add in cured live rock. If the rock has a dead fishy smell to it do not add it or you will cause your tanks ammonia to spike up. You can cure it by just putting it in a bucket of saltwater with a powerhead for around 4 weeks to allow any decay to die off of it.

Answer 3

Any new tank will have algal blooms, this is normal, and usually they go away by themselves. I tend to agree with the mention of a diatom bloom here. The key to ridding yourself of algae problems, if you just want to put in the work, is to find the nutrient source which caused the bloom in the first place. I'd say that 99.9% of algae problems are caused by phophates. In the case of diatoms, the source would be silica. The reason the blooms go away by themselves, is that the algae in question, uses up all of the nutirents that it uses to survive, and esentially, starves itself.

The source of both phophate and silica could be in the water you're using...or it could be from overfeeding. It is crucial to use RO/DI water in a saltwater setup, and not to overfeed your fish. Another good source of silica is your substrate. If you're using playsand, or any other type of sand that may contain silica, you need to get rid of it and replace it with argonite or crushed coral....I'd recommend argonite. The reason for this, that if you keep the substrate that contains the silica, is the source of nutirents that causes the blooms will never go away....it will keeping leaching into the water, and the algae will keep coming back.

As far as the suggestion given about not adding live rock, please by all means completely disregard that comment. Live rock is EXTREMELY beneficial!!!! But as another user suggested, you should use fully cured rock, and you should also add a little at a time to avoid another cycle.

If you have any more questions, you should cruise on over to The Living Reefs Forum. There's a great, friendly, helpful crowd and they are always willing to help!!!! Here's a link
http://www.livingreefs.com/forums/register.php?referrerid=1343

Answer 4

Brown algae is a different species from green algae, so it isn't expected to change...
Live rock will only flourish if you have a special filtration system. Just putting live rock into a communal tank is pretty much a waste of time. Depending on what fish you have in there, you might just be throwing your money away on a very expensive snack for your fishies.