# New Tank, brown/orange algae growing very fast, no idea why?



## 90gallonNick (Feb 4, 2011)

hello, im very new to this, i took a marine biolagy class back in high school and loved it and have wanted to set up a salt water tank ever since. so i finally did it and i just recently purchased a brand new 90 gallon deep blue reef tank with over flow on the side, its drilled and i am running bio balls at the bottom. it has been set up and running for probably 3 weeks now i have african reef sand and probably 20 lbs of live rock and two damsels. 
everything seemed fine in the tank until i came home from work today and i had brown and orange looking algae i guess growing on my rock and sand. one of my friends thought it might be diatom algae bloom and suggested i get some hermit crabs to help with it.
like i said before i am new to all this im still trying to cycle it, but not sure if the algae is ok good bad or what. so if anyone has any suggestions or insite i would greatly appreciate it.


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## McFishin' (Oct 8, 2008)

Got any pics?


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## 90gallonNick (Feb 4, 2011)

kinda hard to see but my LRs use to be red and purple now there all like orange and in the back right hand conor the sand is becoming orange as well.


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## 90gallonNick (Feb 4, 2011)




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## 90gallonNick (Feb 4, 2011)




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## SKAustin (Aug 1, 2006)

I cant see the pics, but it sounds like a Diatom bloom. A Phosban reactor might help speed up the process, but chances are, it'll clear itself in a few weeks all on it's own. Just keep up on your husbandry. 

Diatoms feed on silicates in your water. Sponges lock up silicates. When you start a new tank, sponges that regress from the transportation/handling of the live rock will release some of those silicates back into the water, feeding the bloom. As the sponges start to grow back, they will take in the silicates and begin to starve out the diatoms.


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