The current state of affairs (in my tank)

[NanCrab]

Pretty much everything is covered with this brown algae and I also have a couple of spots (maybe 3mm) of bright green algae. Not sure if the pictures are clear enough to show the algae that is on the snail shells and some of the plugs that is grass or hair like and I can’t tell what color it is. I did seed the tank weeks ago with coralline but not feeling like I’m seeing that yet. We did hook up the UV and set the dedicated pump to the lowest speed. I have been adding 7.5ml of eight-four daily to try to keep the pH up. The low spike you see on the pH graph is from yesterday when I soaked it in RO water and cleaned it with a toothbrush. I was reading a thread on R2R about low pH and mixed reviews on what works best although kalkwasser seems to be the big winner that is not in the budget right now.
current livestock is:
5-6 snails
5 crabs blue/red leg hermits
2 clowns
1 small blue chromis
1 medium lawnmower blenny
Assorted corals
Ammonia 0/Nitrites 0/Nitrates 5 (yesterday) API
Phosphate .01 a couple of days ago (Hanna)
pH API and Red Sea basically match the Apex reading.
When Justin came to do the PAR readings I had no livestock but already had brown algae then. I’ve been messing with the lighting but at the time he measured it was without the t5’s (one Coral plus and one blue plus). I had them and run them 6 hours a day but the way they are mounted on the canopy there was no way he could do the par rating for them.
Just wondering if this is normal “ugly” phase or if I’m doing something wrong. I don’t want to ignore on the basis of it being a “stage” and end up with an out of hand problem but I don’t want to chase it if it truly is just a stage.
I have 4 more pieces of coral in the coral QT that were gifted to me from Jin which will be added after I’m certain there are no more worms. We originally wanted a coral heavy/fish light tank but I think that may be changing as we both really enjoy the fish. Thinking our next additions will be a fairy wrasse. Looking at tangs but the ones I want aren’t available and I’m just thinking I should wait till I have the money to get them all at the same time and qt them together and add them to the DT at the same time. Is that a good or a bad idea? Thoughts on Copperband butterfly?
Ok I’ll stop rambling now. Thanks guys!
**EDIT** sitting here looking into the side of the tank I feel like, at least under the current lighting, that the algae is more rust colored than brown. Not sure if that is relevant.

 

[RonS]

I won’t pretend to be an expert, but that never stops me : )

this looks exactly like what I got in my tank when it was about the same age. I’ll defer to others, but I do believe these are normal “uglies”.

What was effective for me:
1) clean up crew, but it sounds like you have that. But I think I’d double what you’ve got - I had twice that many crabs in my 20 Nano

2) yellow tangs, ASAP. It’s time for mine to go to a bigger home, but you are soooo far away : )

3) UV. But I believe you’ll want to run it fast for algae killing duty

4) small (50 -100 micron) filter sock/floss and frequent changes.

I wouldn’t panic, but I’d definitely hit it now before it gets away from you...

 

[sharktopus_prime]

I agree with the UV comment above. You want to run it at the flow rated for algae control and it should keep most of it under control.

My tank went through a similar phase about a year ago, like many others that haven't been up for very long. I never had a UV back then though, but I worked to keep chemistry stable and did not over feed, which helped a lot.

That looks like the normal tank startup phase to me. I'd bet that as the tank establishes itself, and if you continue to keep up with cleaning and maintaining chemistry at known-good values, it will resolve itself. Your UV will keep it from getting really ugly if it is set to the algae control flow rate though.

 

[dball711]

Normal ugly, don’t get too concerned. A UV can help, feed less and cut down on lighting can help too.

 

[NanCrab]

Normal ugly, don’t get too concerned. A UV can help, feed less and cut down on lighting can help too.

How much can I cut down on lighting without affecting coral health?

 

[dball711]

I’d cut it in half for a week and see how it goes. A little less light really shouldn’t hurt the corals.

 

[NanCrab]

Ok @dball711 thanks

 

[Eric_n_Ga]

At this point I'd probably just black the tank it totally for like 3 days . You have a low number of live stock , limited corals , nothing is gonna die . I'd say it would be the best way to get your algae under control quickly . The prob with the " uglies " is the algae grows , then you try to kill it or do kill it then it's leaching phosphate and nitrates back in the water and worse into the rocks ...now your dealing with a entirely new problem. Black it out with what ever, no lights on , leave the top open for ambient light . 3 days you start to see a decline in algae . Hopefully bafter that utilitarian fish and CUC will get to work