I need some help. I've had my 90g tank for around 9 months. I have about 15 pounds of live rock and about 85 pounds of base rock. The tank floor is some sort of crushed up shells around 5 inches thick, but not live sand. I had a huge brown algae problem when I first started the tank and I cut back on the lights and it pretty much went away. I just upgraded my lights to power compacts 2x65w 10K and 2x65w blue. The algae has started again. I clean the glass at least every other day to get the brown stuff off the glass and what little rock that has coraline algae has turned brown too. I just added a brain coral, green star polyp, and 2 anemones. My fish are two blue damsels, Yellow tang, blue hippo tang, foxface, clown, and a hawk fish. I have two shrimp, 1 snail, and 1 spikey starfish. I do not have a skimmer, but it sounds like I need one from reading posts on here.
I want to run my lights because I want the purple algae to spead all of the rock, but all I'm getting is brown. I'm using purple up, but I'm not seeing any results. Does anyone have a clue how to stop the brown and accelerate the purple???? I'm new to the Forum and I look forward to learning lots from more experienced reefers.