Brown algae and pH

[justin100]

My new tank has been set up for a little over two months now. Lately I have an outbreak of brown algae all over my rocks and substrate. What can I do to clean up my tank a little and get some purple algae growing on my live rock? I bought some cleaner snails and crabs, is there anything else I can do. Also my pH is low how can I get it back up to 8.2? Please help I just want my tank to look great but I guess it is just a waiting game.

[oceancube]

first thing i would recommend to you is get more water flow in your tank, as for the ph, make sure you add buffer when you add regular water or do water changes!! HTH

[GaryP]

Justin,

Nusance algae growth can usually be traced back to excess nutrients, especially phosphates, in the water. Even if you test for phosphates and get a zerao value, you can still have phosphates. Test kits don't measure all phosphates. Increased flow can help by decreasing the amount of detritus building up.

Here is what I suggest:

1. Increase flow
2. Crank up skimming
3. Run a phosphate adsorbent.
4. Maintain your algae grazer population.
5. Run carbon occasionally.

As for your pH, what is your alkalinity? What time of day are you testing pH. What are you using for buffer?

HTH,
Gary

[::pete::]

What kind of water are you using when doing changes ... RO/DI?

[Tim Marvin]

Was the rock cured? If it was cured rock and you filled with all new water, I doubt if the water quality is bad already. Brown diatom blooms are a part of the normal cycle for a new tank. I feed heavily so I am cleaning my glass every two days. I also use lots of snails, grazing fish, and cucumbers to clean with. If it is a brown dust looking algae don't worry. What is a low PH? are we talking in the 7's? If not your probably OK there also. Check you ALK and add some buffer if it is low also. Use only RO/DI water and drip Kalk. Kalk will raise your PH, buffer the system, and grow coralline algae out of control! Keep us informed and if you need any more help let us know. Also as GaryP stated, if you don't already have these other things going try them. If you do your 30% monthly water changes with RO/DI the phosphates should not be a problem, but if you don't do these changes routinely they can creep up on you and are hard to remove once you get a high phosphate reading.