Brown Algae

[Gordon42]

Hello all,

I am having a serious problem with brown algae all over the sand bed making by 75 gallon reef tank look horrible. My water parameters are as follows:

PH 8.3
Salinity .1023
Nitrate 0
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Phos .5-1

I feed the fish once a day or every other day. Could it be my cheap light that I have on the tank? It is a Beams Work 10 K light or could it be something else? I also use RODI water and the TDS coming out of the unit is 2-3 PPM.

Any help is greatly appreciated.
Thank you in advance.

 

[oscargrumete61]

Your phosphate its to high

 

[andyg1960]

Is this a new tank? Looks like diatoms which are pretty normal with a newer tank. Your TDS really should be 0 coming out of a RODI unit. How old are the filters and DI resin?

 

[Gordon42]

The DI Resin and filters have only been run three times. The Tank has been up and running since August. The TDS level coming out of the tap is over 400. I have a well system in my house. Is this considered a new tank still? I figured I was over all the new tank stuff. I also out phos ban in the canister filter.

 

[g5flier]

If your Phosphate is really 0.5 to 1.0 its very high and likely a cause, really try to get that down to <0.1, better yet below 0.05. Second, TDS should be zero our of your RODI system, run some water thru the RODI and see if it stays that high, if it does consider more DI resin. Running your tank since August still makes this a VERY NEW tank and you are likely going to get diatoms regardless of the other items I mentioned.

 

[Gordon42]

Will the phos ban in the canister filter help get the phosphate levels down? Thinking of dosing with Vodka. Any other ideas I can try?

 

[g5flier]

I've only run GFO in a reactor, no dosing history but many people to it. GFO is great to reduce Phosphate just go slow and start with less then the instructions say.

 

[andyg1960]

Its a new tank. The diatoms are pretty common and will run their course. Search for more info about them on this forum. You might consider running a second DI cannister to get the TDS down to 0. Not sure what type of RODI you are running, but look on bulkreefsupply.com for some options. Dont go crazy dosing and changing stuff.

 

[Gordon42]

Ok I am using a RODI Buddie. Thanks for talking me off the dosing ledge. Any idea how long this might last?

 

[RoyC]

My tank is 18 months old and I have been fighting diatoms since it was 3 months old. I use RODI and the TDS reads 0. What I found was that the RODI water showed up silicates on a Salifert test kit, so I was feeding the diatoms with the ATO water every day. I then added a cartridge full of Phosguard to the RODI unit, and within a week the diatoms disappeared.

 

[Gordon42]

Roy that is interesting. I have a Seachem Silicate test kit and it showed nothing. I also have input and output monitor for the TDS and that shows it at 400 incoming and any where between 0-3 output. Not really sure where the problem lies in the whole scheme of things. I think it may be the phosphates as there 0.5-1.

Thank you,