Brown algae

[nbfd363]

I have a 55gal tank. It has been set up for about 7 or eight weeks. I have an anenome, maroon clown, a neon damsel, a sally blue crab, and 6 snails. I have two millenium 3000 hang-on filters and a sea clone 100 protein skimmer. I started the tank with tap water, my first mistake, I have done a 30% water change already. My tank bottom, rocks, barnacles, shell, and plants. Is it a problem or should I just let it go. I will be taking my tank down some time between now and July, we are moving, and am planning on over hauling my tank and converting to a sump/refugium filter system. Should I just let it go and just start over with RO/DI water and recycle my tank when I set it back up. Also, I would appreciate any advise on what type of sump system to set up. I would like to build my own and have a few ideas. :o

[eleyan]

You can improve your water quality by doing several water cahnges with ro/di water. You don't have to start from scratch. The main things that promote alge grouth in tap water are phosphates and nitrates. You can reduce these by both water changes or by filter media that absorbs them (I've use PhosGuard to get rid of phosphates, and I think there is another chemical that does the same thing for nitrates). If you do 20% RO/Di water changes every couple of weeks for the next couple of moths or so, you should be able to lower them significantly. They will still accumilate naturally in your tank from fish waste and feeding, but a regular 20% water change once a month would control that after you get it to the normal level.
There are other factors that contribute to alge blooms. One is lighting: make sure you have the right spectrum (10,000k and actenic blue) and that your lights are not too old (the spectrum starts shifting after 5 monthts to 12 months depending in the bulb brand). Also, DOC (Disolved Organic Carbon) in the water is food for alge. This is basically protine disolved in the water from overfeeding or decaing. Your skimmer should get rid of that.

[Instar]

I wouldn't get too excited about brown algae in a new tank like yours. Its just diatoms and is paving the way for the more desirable coraline algae. You will have an algae bloom that is worse than the diatoms, just wait. When its all finished cycling, it will come out alright in the end. Use good quality water (RO/DI), good salt, good lights as eleyan said and make sure you have some clean up critters, such as snails, in that tank. Start collecting them now, cause otherwise the next algae bloom will really challenge you and you'll be way behind on collecting the critters.