Brown Algae Outbreak

[studogg]

Have had my tank for about 10 years. Recently noticed an outbreak of brown slimy agae on my rocks and sand. Easily removed with a siphon. Can't determine the cause.

Water paramaters are normal. Replaced CF bulbs recently.

What would be the cause? I have seen threads about diatoms in new tanks and how it occurs with cycling, but my tank has been around for years.

thanks

[guppychao]

what is your water source? ro/di

how are your phosphates?

[studogg]

RO/DI water.

Will test fro phospates tonight. Though, never had a problem before.

[Playa-1]

A pic would be handy.

[studogg]

Looks just like this:
http://reef.geddis.org/55g/p/1392b-red-slime-algae.jpg

[Playa-1]

Have you checked your pumps. Maybe your pumps are worn or corroded and not putting out their normal level of flow.

[studogg]

Will check on this too, but as far as I can tell they are fine. I have a pump on the skimmer, a powerhead, and a pump for the overflow.

They were fine last I checked about a week ago.

[studogg]

Still have this problem. Phosphates are normal. Used Phosban anyway. Pumps are fine. Nothing has changed, but the Algae is still there.

Red/brown. Slimy. Blows off easily. And bubbles off by itself like in the picture.

[studogg]

Anyone?

[Otty]

Have you started feeding any different kind of food latley?? Or adding any new additivies??

[studogg]

Nope. No changes whatsoever.

[Salty Prata]

Studdog, there are two possibilities of what this could be; I can't really tell by looking at the picture. One it could be cyano Bacteria, and Two it could be brown alge. I have had both in my reef over the years. The key to eliminating alga is making sure you have new light bulbs, and ro filters. If you still have a problem resort to alga removers,I prefer snails and crabs but if you feel safe using chemical media then by all means go for it. To remove canyo most venders sell antibiotics. Be carfull with some types of these I lost my angel fish to one treatment. Brown alga grows due to excess Silicate in the aquarium, to eliminate you could use a Silicate remover if you do not care to use natural means.

[reefCrawler]

That's not brown algae, it's red-slime if the picture is correct.

from my experience, red slime always comes with overdoses foods + high temperature, mix with lighting, you have a red-slime booming.

reduce the food.
stop lighting 3~4 days.
use turky blaster to blow off the red slime
If you have chiller, set it to lower temp. such as 79.
Adding more shrimps such as cleaner shrimp to take care the left-over.

problem s/b easy to fix.

[reeferstace]

I agree with reefCrawler. That picture looks more like cyano than a diatom bloom. Welcome to the "redslime" woes.

[tigereye37]

I too, am battling red slime as we speak! I've reduced feeding to minimal levels, increased my CUC, and performed prob about 4 15% water changes in the last 2 weeks. I'm definitely winning the fight, but its still not gone. I tried the lights off for three days trick as well and it seemed to help, but once i turned the light back on it started reappearing in places. Its definitely better than it was though. I've heard a few people mention UV as a possible solution, anyone with more info on UV?

[reefCrawler]

I have UV, it seems helpful, but red slime still comes back form time to time - then I control foods dosing to minimum, reduce lighting time, it should do the tricks.