Brown stuff on sand

[mksalt]

Anyone have any ideas on how to keep my sand clean? It’s very fine grain and I got this brown stuff developing.

[Runfrumu]

Just some brown algea or diatom. I run my fingers through mine and stir it up some. This weekend I'm going to get a sump and put macro in it and hopefully keep it down.

[blackthunda77]

Looks like diatom algae. How long have you had your tank running? I still get blooms from time to timw and mine has been up for years now. For me it usually means im feeding too much and my phosphates are creeping up. For you it might be something different. Give us some BG info on your tank.

[muerk1]

There are a few things that can help get rid of diatoms on the sand. Cerith snails are good at eating diatoms, and they will eat them off the sand, unlike many other snails. The good thing about ceriths is that they also eat detritus in the top layers of the sand, which is what is causing the algae. The other options are to increase the flow in your tank, or get sand movers like gobies, nassarius snails, or algae eating conch snails.

[mksalt]

Put saltwater in tank 33 days ago. Just added a couple of clowns and shrimp. I had the brown stuff going before I even introduced any food. I have been adding Kent iodine, Purple Up and Kent Strontium & Molybdenem blend. I’ve been struggling to get my PH up. Also adding Kent Pro Buffer almost daily. Finally up to 8.2ph today.

Tried a watchman gobi. He started sifting, digging and tail wagging immediately. Had a major sand storm going in minutes. Got lucky and caught him quickly and raced him back to the store for a credit. My sand is very fine.

Maybe I'll try that snail suggested if I can find one.

A pic of what I have going so far.

http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/...45__Small_.JPG

[mksalt]

Let me try to postr the pic again.

[blackthunda77]

looks to me like your probably still finishing up cycling. It honestly doesnt even look very bad at all. Just give it some time, it will most likely clear up. Just dont over feed and keep up with your water changes. maybe cut down on your lighting a little bit.

[Kannin]

It doesn't look that bad. vacuum the sand, keep your phosphates low and you could reduce your photo period a little... maybe.

[MarineFishGuy]

I had similar algae when my tank was young (first two months).
I added some nasarius and cerith snails (12 each) and increased flow (all previously suggested) and my sand is much cleaner now.
I also added some Cheato to my fuge to help with Phosphate control.
The snails will help with the cleanup and the cheato helps in the maintenance, good luck, looks good otherwise.
Ken

[bhdmc]

Dido with the above.

[BreefMe]

Increase the amount of Ilyanassa Obsolettas (sand stirring snails) you have and that will take care of the problem. About 2 or so snails per gallon. I have about 250 in my 180 gal, along with the other classics - turbos, hermits, Nassarius.

Red and Blue legged hermits are also very good.

[Gdevine]

Jeez...that's a lot of life for such a new tank. What are your water param's? Especially ammonia!

[mksalt]

34 days into this Bio29 I have 2 small clowns, 5 snails, 3 shrimp, 1 crab, 1 star polyp (just opened back up after being closed for 3 days. I thought it was going to be a goner), 1 open brain, 1 hammer, maybe 7 mushrooms and a large feather. I lost a very nice large xenia and a large patch of buttons.

Started out with live sand and most of the live rock came out of a mature tank. That’s why most of my rock surface has coralline. I now can see some developing on my back tank wall.

I know I’m pushing things quickly, but after spending over $100 for rock and sand, I figure I should have that option.

Have been adding some additives as you might have seen me mention.

As of two days ago:
PH 8.2
Alk 2.5
Sal 1.0245
AM, NI & NA all zero
Iodine .03
Last calcium check was at 390
Phos zero
Temp average 78
2 gallon water changes on 9-29 & 10-1. Going to try to continue that every 3 – 4 days.

Here is a pic of what’s left of the xenia. Y shaped rock. My beautiful brown xenia tuned to purple mush. I now see small hair like growth on the purple flesh. Hoping it new xenia. Prob not.

Sorry for the long post.

[uscharalph]

I'd slow down a little. Hopefully you won't lose much of what you just added. I wasn't patient in the begining and learned the hard way. 34 days is not that long.

As for your algae, we all go thru this. Vaccuum the top of your sand during water changes. Don't overfeed. Watch how long you leave the lights on.

[mksalt]

I have some cash to spend on this so it’s so hard to patient….. I added my first three corals at day 7. Lost two of the three.

Added the two fish 5 days ago, which was about day 30. Knock on wood, everything looks pretty good right now.

Another water change tomorrow.

Maybe one more fish this weekend? And a sand snail? Any suggestions on a fish? Something peaceful that will not harm coral or feather, not start fights or create sand storms?

I’ve been keeping fresh water fish for almost 30 years. Salt is quite different.

[blackthunda77]

i know its hard cuz i was in your position a couple years ago, but i think the best thing you can invest i now is patience, Maybe some hardware, but not livestock. You might just end up losing it. My tank has been running for 2 years now and the previous was 5 yrs old and even now, if i add something to hastily, i end up losing livestock, and its frustrating. Just my two cents.

[MarineFishGuy]

Funny, your story sounds very similar to mine.
I started with mostly premium Live rock and a little base rock (all cured) plus live sand.
My cycle lasted about 4 days before all reading were 0.

I also lost a Xenia, but it is the only coral I have lost to date. Aside from a a small frag from a buddy which was already declining.

Patience is tough, but it will save you a lot of headaches. I also find it hard not to add things, even now that my tank is approaching 6 months old.

A Fire Fish Goby is a colorful and peaceful fish. I added one and enjoy it immensely. It is also pretty small and will not add significant bioload to your system. keep in mind you are still building your biological filter.

Here is the most recent pic of my tank. You can see the goby in the lower right.


At this point I would focus on your cleanup crew until your algae subsides. I would add no more than 4-6 snails each week of each type (cerith and nasirius) for the next two weeks.

[mksalt]

Good advice. Maybe I’ll just add a couple more sand snails and wait on the fish.

Does your Fire Fish disturb or do any digging in the sand? I want to avoid that.

Nice looking tank.

It looks like you have quite a bit of water circulation in that tank. I have a Biocube 29 and at this point have the water moving from the left back corner to the front left corner. Thinking about adding a circulation pump. Not sure really what kind of flow I should try to create. Anyone out there have ideas of what I should be trying to accomplish?

[mksalt]

Still searching for that algae on the sand solution issue……

The diamond watchman goby I had for a couple of hours was an interesting animal that I believe would keep a substrate in great shape. But not a good solution for fine grained sand. Upon a “do over� I would probably pick a substrate with a little larger grain.

Anybody have any experience with a sand sifting shrimp? Saw a sign on a tank at the local store but they had none in stock.

[ClayWagner]

It doesn't look that bad. Many tanks have worse.

[jasondon]

Hi Guys. Just curious if there is a difference between more coarse sand, and finer sand in keeping it clean? I have fairly fine sand in my 20G, and I find it fairly difficult to keep clean. I do not have any snails right now, but once my 60 is up and going I will probably need some. Any thoughts or preferences?

Also curious if going from my current PC lighting to T5HO will have any effect on keeping cyano/algae down?

Thanks in advance!