Brown Outbreak

Over the last few days I have started noticing a stringy brown algae in my tank. Little stringers stuck to a lot of the rock in my tank. This weekend I'm due for a water change so I looked in my Rubbermaid 32 gallon container in the spare bedroom to see how much water I needed to make. The water level in it was about 9 inches deep with this same brown algae on the sides of the container. I have used this method every time since I started the tank, having various amounts of water left from my last water making, this has never happened before. What is it, what do I need to do about it. Do I dump the water in the Rubbermaid and start over? Puzzled about this. I normally start the pump and heater a couple of days before the water change so things get up to the levels they need. What could be going on?

 

I'm using all home made RO/DI water. Nothing different in the manner water is stored. I'm in the process of making new water for a water change. I don't have a way to test phosphate levels, and I have not checked the nitrate levels, will do that now. The tank has been up and running for a little over 90 days now. You think it's a good idea to do a water change before the weekend. I've been doing them every other Saturday, about 20%. I thought the algae in the Rubbermaid was very odd. Like I said, I've been doing this the same way for 3 months now and this is the first time I've seen algae in the leftover salt water.

 

I'm going to investigate this further this morning. I changed my filters out after my last water making. It seems my TDS meter has stopped working. Last time I made water going in was 335 coming out was between 003 and 005. The brown does not seem worse in the tank this morning. I'll keep you posted and try to get some pics.

 

I'm thinking that maybe my last batch of water was not as clean as I thought. I tried to start making some yesterday and my TDS meter reads ERR. Replacing batteries to see if that makes a difference. Checked Nitrates and none show up on test. Will resume testing later this morning. I added bleach to what water was left in my salt water container to get rid of brown algae. At this point do I buy enough salt water to do a partial change, just to eliminate my water source as the culprit, or is this just something that happens with a 90 day old tank??

 

Pics of the brown crud. This a picture of my green polyps last weekend and today.

 

You will continue to have algae blooms, even at 90 days. Changing just over half your water volume every month seems excessive. Not only are you diluting ammonia-nitrite-nitrate to assist your cycle, your also removing beneficial bacteria in the water column that is not colonized on rock and substate. Keep the "brown crud," blown off your coral and allow your tank to stabilize without any water changes. Get a phosphate kit, this may be your problem. You may have phosphate leaching from rock work or could be your water source. Just don't get discouraged, all tanks go through an ugly brown crud phase. Or in my case…..several cyano phases. If you just can't stop yourself from interfering with the process try by-monthly 10gallon changes

 

Thanks for the replies. I have had the lights off all day today, read somewhere that will help keep it from spreading. All my numbers look pretty good to me. I do not have a way to test Phosphates, will have to get a test kit for it. Being new to this I thought doing a water change was never a bad thing, but I can see what you are saying about dumping some nutrients. So much to learn! Thanks for the information!
PH 8.2
KH=9.8 dkh
CA =430
MG=1600+
Temp:=79.5 degrees
Salinity 1.024
Lights on 10 hours full intensity, 15 minute sunrise /sunset, 4 hours of 10% blue moonlight

 

Looks like my tank is about to crash and burn. Yesterday I thought the brown algae was better. Last night I took the circulation power heads out and cleaned them. Today they are covered again in brown algae. Lost my feather duster, looks like my green polyps are about to die. I had taken a frag from them for the Christmas meeting, it has died. Hard to watch them die off, one by one. Don't know what to do. Checked all levels again today, they appear to be fine and well within range.

 

SOS...... I'm looking over the things that I have changed over the last 7 days that could have caused this.
Added a Duncan Coral in the area of the green polyps and hammer coral. 4 days later noticed the green and the hammer were not opening as much.
2 days ago added a Hydor Koralia Wave Maker/ switches two inside circulation pumps off and on at intervals.
Bought 4 corals from online cyber Monday sale at Salty Underground
Red/Green Welsi Coral
Metallic Green Stylophora coral
Purple & pink Zoas
Green Helio Fungia Anemone Coral

All the new pieces seem to be fine. I took a turkey baster and blew brown algae off corals .
My birds nest coral I got at last meeting looks funny. All of the white is turning green.
Dead Royal Gramma.

What to do , what to do?? Any Help Appreciated!

 

None that I can think of. Nitrates, Nitrites, Ammonia and Phosphate test kits are Salifert brand. I have a Red Sea ordered for Phosphates. I just finished checking all tests again, nothing shows up out of the ordinary. I'm afraid to do a water change now with the water I have. Thinking of going to the Fish Tank and buying some of their salt water and doing a 10 gallon water change. I have reduced my lights to just one LED strip. Kinda in panic mode at the moment. I took turkey baster and blasted the algae from all corals. Some in the tank look fine no problem. Torch and hammer no looking so good.A couple of the pods on the green polyps have opened slightly. I'm doing all the research I can online, but keep getting conflicting information???? The last time I made water what came out was at 3. I read somewhere that these systems will get out not all but most of the bad stuff. Considering that what was going in was well over 300 I thought that was adequate... apparently not. Not looking forward to mouth to mouth on the frogspawn or hammer. Lol! Thanks

 

From Advance Aquarist Article way back in 2011, "The surveyed reef aquariums divided into two distinct sets of husbandry protocols; aggressive and passive (see Fig. 6 for pictures of these aquariums). The aggressive husbandry practices included protein skimming, GAC filtration, and regular water changes in an active effort to scrub the water of nutrients. The passive approach did not involve any of these procedures. Interestingly, the aquaria subjected to passive husbandry exhibited bacterial counts that fell within the range seen on authentic reefs; 200 - 1000K/mL. On the other hand, the tanks that "benefited" from careful attention to nutrient removal protocols displayed bacteria/mL counts that fell far short of these numbers; only 90-140K/mL." Also from same article, And, quite intriguingly, the natural biological filtration, which starts with bacteria and other microbes, is remarkable in its capacity to remediate reef tank water of TOC, easily removing 50% or more of the post-feeding TOC increase in tank water."[/I]So, what does this mean? Not sure other than showing bacteria is in the water column and extremely important for the overall health of both closed systems and our oceans.

Now that being said, with the death of fish and continued deterioration of coral I am highly suspicious of a contaminant or contaminants. I would acquire water and perform as much of a water change as possible ASAP. If you are not running carbon I would do so immediately and if you are running carbon but have not changed within the last 7 days I would do so now.

 

I went to the Fish Tank last night and got some clean salt water, am doing a change this morning. I have all my lights off except for one 48" strip. Things look pretty much the same this morning. I have checked my ro/di system and with what it costs to replace the filters, I can buy a new system. Until I get this I will purchase water. The guy at the Fish Tank did a test on my water and said "perfect". I can understand the algae bloom in my tank.... but how do you have an algae bloom in a 32 gallon rubbermaid container that is opaque gray with a lid on it. I agree Doc, I have to have had some contamination from somewhere. If the contamination came from the ro/di water I produced and entered into the tank 2 weeks ago at my water change, wouldn't the water tests today come back showing something instead of nothing detectable? I'm cleaning my storage containers, doing a 20% water chang this morning, don't know what else I can do?

 

Your water was "perfect," simply meaning the few things we commonly test for in water is within normal limits. Expensive, but the "Triton" water test detects some metals as well as elements that could be building up in your system from your salt mix. I am confused by replacing filters on your RO/DI unit being the same cost as a new system. I buy from bulk reef supply and the replacement items are very inexpensive, especially compared to an entire unit. Also, keeping your lights off will eventually help with an algae bloom. However, I really think the algae is part of your tank cycling and there is something more sinister taking place. I see no reason to keep the lights off. When I first started the hobby I made many many mistakes while learning. The biggest was simply, going too fast! Adding too much livestock, then when things go wrong, driving to this store or that store and getting different advice from everyone. This leads to buying products and adding/changing things without knowing or understanding what is actually taking place. The internet is even worse because most advice is based on repetitive hearsay and anecdotal evidence. So….water changes for a likely contaminate, carbon if not already doing so, and slow down a bit to allow your tank to stabilize. Your tank will recover. Algae is ugly but every tank goes through several ugly algae phases until stabilized. Good luck!