Brown Slime - Possible Blue-Green "Algae"
I'm a bit of a newbie to this crazy addiction we call reef-keeping. Anyways, I purchased a complete, running system in the late fall and have unfortunately had some problems with a greenish brown slime that likes to cover my sandbed and live rock. I think it may be some blue green algae.
For some background my tank is a 50 galllon bowfront. I purchased the system in November, prior to that it was running for over 2 years at the previous owners residence. It has about 40lbs of live rock, a couple inches of sand, a not so hot air-stone style skimmer, a 304 running charcoal and chemipure, and a 10000K 175 watt MH presently on for 7hrs per day. The livestock includes 4 small fish, one decorator crab, one cleaner shrimp, one coral banded shrimp, one sebae anenome, and several hermit crabs. I presently only have a few mushrooms, but will hopefully be able to add more as I rectify this problem.
So far in trying to clean up my tank and improve the conditions I have done a few things. I have gradually increased the salinity to around 1.24, it was sitting at 1.20 before. I have also starting dosing with Kalkwasser to help increase the pH level and prepare the tank for more future corals. I have been trying to increase the flow in the tank as well. I will probably upgrade my skimmer but have not yet done so.
Any suggestions to help me eliminate my brown slime - possible blue-green "algae" problem would be appreciated.
Nathan
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