Hello. I have some dark brown algae growing in circular patterns on my rock. Below are 3 pictures of the same algae. What concerns me, is how much it has grown in 6 weeks. I looked at an old picture, and 6 weeks ago, there were a couple spots on one rock that were about the size of the tip of my pinky finger, and now they've grown into one spot about 2" in diameter. I thought this algae wouldn't be removable because it looks fused to the rock, but with some work, I completely was able to remove one circle about 1.5" in diameter. Came off in very small pieces. I thought it was slimey, but when I started pulling off pieces, it actually looks and feels like seaweed / kelp.
My tank is pretty new....has been up and running for 4 months.
My parameters are good, and I feed once a day and try to only give enough food that the fish can consume within 5 minutes.
I use
RO/DI water (Spectrapure MaxCap) with 0
TDS, and faithfully do bi-weekly waterchanges (10%). The sandbed looks good. It's just some good size patches of brown algae on the rock. No hair algae or any other type of nusiance algae. I had a small spot of bubble algae and turned the lights off for 3 days about a month ago and it disappeared and hasn't come back, but turning off the lights didn't do anything with this algae. Any idea what this algae is and what is the best option to get rid of it? If I work on pulling it out manually, or using a toothbrush, will little pieces of it that might not make it to the
skimmer, create an even bigger problem by spreading it around the tank?
Just FYI.... I recently added a second powerhead to add some flow. (25x turnover now).
I run my
T5's for 10 hours a day, and the 150w
MH only runs for 4 hours a day (only softies right now). All bulbs are only 4 months old.
My parameters:
Nitrates,
Nitrites and
Ammonia are all 0.
Phosphates are .1
PH 8.1
Alk 2.9
Temp 82 going up close to 84 when
MH's are lit
Calcium 330
5 small fish in 53g tank (2 perculas, 1 tailspot blenny, 1 purple firefish, 1 pygmy possum wrasse)
Thanks!
Pam
