



  1. Brown algae
    by C.Okelly/ (C.J. O'Kelly) (Tue, 7 Jan 92)
    by tse/ (Anthony Tse) (Tue, 9 Feb 1993)
    by COKelly/ (C.J. O'Kelly) (Wed, 10 Feb 93)
  4. algae prob in marine tank
    by dbs/ (Dave Sheehy) (8 Jul 1993)
  5. [M] Algae and Light
    by krogers/ (K. Rogers) (Thu, 4 Feb 1993)

Brown algae

by C.Okelly/ (C.J. O'Kelly)
Date: Tue, 7 Jan 92
Newsgroup: alt.aquaria

In article <>,
(Thomas Gasser) writes:

>Now this is a brown slime that is easy to wipe off.  If tends to come
>off in sheets.  My fish store thought that it might be brown algea and
>not diatom but I am not sure how to telle difference.

I assume you can't get to a microscope.  If you can, telling brown
seaweeds (always filamentous) from diatoms (always unicellular, and the
glass houses they live in are very distinctive most of the time) is dead
easy.  Try this test: take some of the slime between your fingertips and
rub the tips together.  If the slime feels gritty and disintegrates as
you rub, it's probably diatoms.  If it's more or less slimy and resists
disintegration, it's either a brown alga (unlikely unless it grows big
and feathery with time) or it's (gasp!) a blue-green alga
(cyanobacterium).  Forget the name - these suckers come in all the
colors of the rainbow, especially in marine environments.

Bon chance avec vos algues, mon ami.

Charley O'Kelly
Mad Phycologist


by tse/ (Anthony Tse)
Date: Tue, 9 Feb 1993
Newsgroup: rec.aquaria

In article <> (Reginald Hirsch)  writes:
>I am having trouble reducing or eliminating marine
>micro algae. the soft, cotton like green vegetation
>has spread to 50% coverage in a 110 gal. reef tank.
>Filtration consists of a trickle filter with both
>D.I.S. and Bio Balls,

   I would definitely get rid of the DLS.

>Protein Skimmer with Ozone
>and a De-nitrator. Nitrates stay below 12.5 on my
>tetra test kit.

   Is that nitrate or nitrate nitrogen?  Either way, it's quit a bit
higher then what I have in my tanks.  I don't know what's the
maximum acceptable level is though.

>Lighting is served by 2 triton
>bulbs, 2 URI Actinic blues and a standard aquarium
>grade bulb. There is also moonlight at night.

   Consider I am the one who kept saying people are using too much
light, this ought to mean something.  You don't have enough light
(unless your bulbs are VHO or at least HO).  Although what you have
shouldn't cause any algae problem.

>All attempts have failed so far;

   [attempts deleted]
   The way I beat back my algae was hard back breaking work.  You arm
yourself with a tooth brush.  Take out 5 gallon of water into a bucket.
Then take every single rock out and scrub them clean.  You do that every
week first until you make a dent, then you can do it every other week.
It took me about 1.5 months to win the battle.  I said I can beat
back algae, but I didn't say it's going to be easy.



by COKelly/ (C.J. O'Kelly)
Date: Wed, 10 Feb 93
Newsgroup: rec.aquaria

In <>,
(Reginald Hirsch) writes:

"I am having trouble reducing or eliminating marine microalgae..."

Hmmm.  Sounds like the dreaded -Cladophora-.  It may be worth noting
that algae like this will appear on reefs in nature when grazing animals
have been removed for whatever reason - and the algae will proceed to
choke out the invertebrates.  I don't have a reef tank, I normally -try-
to grow the algae (but in little bottles all by themselves), so whatever
suggestions I might make may be just a tad impractical, but what the hey
it's just Usenet.

First sortie: Normal transplanting dieback for Caulerpa (note spelling).
Would not normally outcompete the Cladophora anyway.

Second sortie: Right idea.

Third: The result I would have expected.

Fourth: You got stuffed 'cause "microorganisms" in this context means
"prokaryotes", e.g. bacteria and cyanobacteria (blue-green algae).
Cladophora and its mates in the "hair/thread algae" box are eukaryotes
and respond poorly or not at all to anti-bacterial agents.  Lots of
threads posted to this group last year about the proper handling of
antibiotics - would have saved you much grief with the protein skimmer.

Latest: I agree with the dealer (the state of his tank notwithstanding)
in that you should check the phosphates and keep plucking.  I'd also
encourage the addition of as many alga-grazing fish (damsels etc.) as
your community will tolerate.  Note that Caulerpa, unlike almost all
other algae, will preferentially pull nutrients out of the sediments
using its colorless rhizoids (others get their nutrients from the
surrounding water), so you can remove dissolved nutrients to practically
zero and still expect to keep the macroalga.  If you want it, that is.

Charley O'Kelly
Mad Phycologist

algae prob in marine tank

by dbs/ (Dave Sheehy)
Date: 8 Jul 1993
Newsgroup: alt.aquaria

daniel.m.kuster..jr ( wrote:

: As long as we're on the topic of uncontrollable
: hair algae, does anyone have any recommendations
: on marine fish suitable for a reef tank that
: eat algae?  

You already have a tang so try these on for size.  Algae blennies (Salarius 
Fasciatus) work well in my experience. Rainfordi gobies are a nice looking 
fish which eats hair algae. They're kinda small so it's hard to imagine that 
they can put away vast quantities of the stuff. FWIW, I'd get an algae blenny,
they can really pack that stuff away and they're attractive in their own

Dave Sheehy

[M] Algae and Light

by krogers/ (K. Rogers)
Date: Thu, 4 Feb 1993
Newsgroup: rec.aquaria,alt.aquaria,sci.aquaria (Cheng Chang Huang) writes:

>Recently some brown algae start occupying the bottom and the wall of my
>tank.  Among them there are also scatters of green algae.  I looked up
>Moe's beginner manual and there is a entry from his diagonosis table
>about brown algae.  The entry indicates the cause of this algae problem
>as "inproper lightening".
>1. What does improper mean, anyway?

There are many different molecules which can capture light.  Various
kinds of plants/animals have different kinds and proportions of them.
For example, the dinoflagellate which inhabits coral tissue is of the
Pyrrophyta group.  They contain chlorophyll a, chlorophyll c and beta
carotene as main photodynamic constituants.  They also contain a few
other very minor amounts of other Xanthophylls.  If you look at the
absorption spectra for the above you find that hitting ~450nm is
really good as all have peaks in that area with only chlorophyll a
containing a red peak as well.  Other organisms have different light
needs.  The idea behind "improper" lighting is that you're favoring
non-target things with the spectrum supplied over the tank.

While the above is true, there are other factors which also contribute
towards certain kinds of organisms being favored.  It's tough to
pinpoint a specific cause in my experience.  Be that as it may, if
you're interested in a deeper understanding about light in your
aquarium, go look up the subject "photosynthesis" in any relatively
decent university library and peruse some of the more promising
looking books given your background.  You'll find the topic is a wee
bit more complex than what they told you in 8th grade biology class or
what you read in the hobby books (Moe, Thiel, et. al.), which is the
level I started at.
Keith Rogers
