Invasion of the Brown Algae!

[Samwyse]

OK, day six of my adventures in sal****er aquaculture. The morning, I
noticed that all of the green hair on my overflow box had turned brown,
and a brown dust had settled over the rocks and sand at the right end of
my "new" aquarium. Curiously, this all happened after I added a cup of
salt to my skimmer last night. (BTW, my SG now reads 1.025 again at 72
deg.) There are no vertabrates in the tank, and since I expect the tank
will someday go back to its owner, I seriously doubt I'll add any.

A few details that may not be apparent from the photos: The left side
of the aquarium has a base of white gravel, roughly the side of small
peas. The right side is all fine sand, approaching dust. By the luck
of the draw, all the rock that seems to still be alive is on the left
end. Also, the right end has a glass cover which blocks almost no
light, while the left has a cheap brown plastic cover that blocks a lot.
The left-end wavemaker is almost clear of dust, but the right-end one
looks like someone dusted it with cinnamon.

I'm assuming that this latest growth in brown algae, so I guess I'll go
back to my local LFS and get some Chemi Clean.

P.S. Dispite my initial fears, the ammonia level looks closer to zero
than to 0.25ppm. I guess I won't be cycling large amounts of water today.

[TekCat]

Slooow down, before you give all your money to LFS. Brown algea (diatoms)
are common phase in new tank. It usually occur right after your ammonia and
nitrites became zeroes. Just clean it from glass and wait. Keep your water
params stable. Soon enough it'll go away and green hair algea will take
over.
As long as your water params are stable you can add some clean up crew to
help with algea. Go slow.

[Peter Pan]

you're experiencing the normal first tank worries.. Your tank in cycling
normally,it takes time to where the tanks is not so much work. So far it
sounds like you're doing everything right. Just be patient.Each step of the
way, when you get stuck, its a good idea to come on here and post a question
for the problem your having, you will get the right answers in here. Its
also a good idea to read other posts to help learn more about your tank. you
will find many hobbists have the same problems and by reading their posts,
you can help learn about your tank. Good Luck
"TekCat" > wrote in message
...
> Slooow down, before you give all your money to LFS. Brown algea (diatoms)
> are common phase in new tank. It usually occur right after your ammonia
> and nitrites became zeroes. Just clean it from glass and wait. Keep your
> water params stable. Soon enough it'll go away and green hair algea will
> take over.
> As long as your water params are stable you can add some clean up crew to
> help with algea. Go slow.
>
>