Newbie algae problem

[kanapino]

OK, my first tume posting something on this board. I've been here in the background reading quite of your posts.
Like it says I'm new to the reef hobby and have a 120g tank with 90pounds of live rock(a mix of cured and uncured). OK so the tank has been set up for about a month now. I have this algae or what I believe to be cyanobacteria and it won't go away. I left it in the beginning because I thought with skimming, no food and not much lighting it would die off. But it is just getting worse and worse. In the last week I've done 2 waters and cleaned the glass; and of course the skimmer. Yesterday in a final effort I dosed 20ml of a 5% solution of potassium permanganate because I don't think the skimming is as effective as it should be. It is brown to dark red algae(or bacteria) and spreads all over very quickly with the lights on. Does anyone have any suggestions as to what more I can do?

 

[Midland]

Be patient

This is par for the course on a new tank. Keep doing regular water changes and go very slow on stocking the tank for the first 6 mos. to a year. As the tank matures, it will be able to handle the bio load and the algae will eventually disappear. Good luck!

 

[Anonymous]

i found a ton of helpful pages by going to about.com typing in "marine aquarium algae control" and doing a search.

Midland is right, new tanks almost always have some kind of algae bloom. it is frustrating, but will eventaully subside. if you still have the problem in a few weeks, you can try harvesting the algae to death.

good luck and welcome to reefs.org.