Green Hairy Algae Growing in Sand Bed

Wet Dreamer · 02/22/2011, 04:05 PM

Hey everyone, I have kind of a 2 part question. I am getting some green hairy type algae that is growing and rooted into my sand bed and I am not sure how to get rid of it. My tank is a 90 gallon with about 2 1/2 inces of sand. I have 2 Koralia 4's in it which I believe should be enough flow. To give some history, the tank is about 5 months old, and I was getting brown detrius on the sand bed as well as this algae growth originally. I added some hermit crabs and moved around the powerheads to get better flow, and the brown detrius has pretty much disappeared, but unfortunately even when I stir the sandbed and remove the algae it continues to grow back. Would this be a flow issue, overfeeding issue or a larger clean up crew needed?

This leads to my next question, for the cleanup crew, I have:

10 Turbo snails
1 peppermint shrimp
1 Cleaner Shrimp
3 Emerald Crabs
10 Hermit Crabs

Should this be good enough for a 90 gallon? Any info would be great!

Ps. On a side note, my yellow tang sure seems to like to eat the algae growing in my sand bed, unfortunately, it does not eat enough!

breiter3 · 02/22/2011, 04:21 PM

If your detritus issue has been going on for a while you've likely built up a nice little nutrient sink in the sand bed for the algae to continue feeding off of even after you've solved the problem. Given time it should exhaust its' supplies while you manually remove it and your clean up crew goes after it.

You didn't say how your tank was stocked or your feeding amounts, so I can't comment on that.

Definitely would add more snails if it were me. Get some Nessarius Snails (these will also stir up the sand bed to keep it healthy) and Cerith snails added into the mix. Watch out for those hermits and crabs though... They are in the end opportunistic and will eat your snails given the chance.

Wet Dreamer · 02/23/2011, 09:54 AM

Here is the list of my stock:

1 Yellow Tang
2 Percula Clowns
1 Six Line Wrasse
1 Black/White Bannerfish
1 Lamarck's Angelfish
1 Lawnmower Blenny

I feed them twice a day, once at lunch, either Omega flakes (1 pinch) or Pellets (15 pellets?), and once at night with either mysis or brine shrimp (1 small cube), then every 2-3 days i give them a half sheet of green seaweed. Does this sound right, or am I overfeeding them? Last night I moved the powerheads and some rock work around to try to get better flow on the sandbed to maybe help this situation!

chimmike · 02/23/2011, 10:14 AM

need a lot more snails and need some nassarius snails.

jokim · 02/23/2011, 10:45 AM

yes need some detritus eaters and scavangers

02/22/2011, 04:05 PM	#1
Wet Dreamer Registered Member Join Date: Feb 2011 Location: Gibbons, Ab, Canada Posts: 62	Green Hairy Algae Growing in Sand Bed Hey everyone, I have kind of a 2 part question. I am getting some green hairy type algae that is growing and rooted into my sand bed and I am not sure how to get rid of it. My tank is a 90 gallon with about 2 1/2 inces of sand. I have 2 Koralia 4's in it which I believe should be enough flow. To give some history, the tank is about 5 months old, and I was getting brown detrius on the sand bed as well as this algae growth originally. I added some hermit crabs and moved around the powerheads to get better flow, and the brown detrius has pretty much disappeared, but unfortunately even when I stir the sandbed and remove the algae it continues to grow back. Would this be a flow issue, overfeeding issue or a larger clean up crew needed? This leads to my next question, for the cleanup crew, I have: 10 Turbo snails 1 peppermint shrimp 1 Cleaner Shrimp 3 Emerald Crabs 10 Hermit Crabs Should this be good enough for a 90 gallon? Any info would be great! Ps. On a side note, my yellow tang sure seems to like to eat the algae growing in my sand bed, unfortunately, it does not eat enough!

02/23/2011, 10:14 AM	#4
chimmike oxygen abuser Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Parrish, FL Posts: 5,089 Blog Entries: 2	need a lot more snails and need some nassarius snails. __________________ -Mike Tankless wonder Geaux Noles!

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02/22/2011, 04:21 PM	#2
breiter3 Registered Member Join Date: Aug 2007 Posts: 98	If your detritus issue has been going on for a while you've likely built up a nice little nutrient sink in the sand bed for the algae to continue feeding off of even after you've solved the problem. Given time it should exhaust its' supplies while you manually remove it and your clean up crew goes after it. You didn't say how your tank was stocked or your feeding amounts, so I can't comment on that. Definitely would add more snails if it were me. Get some Nessarius Snails (these will also stir up the sand bed to keep it healthy) and Cerith snails added into the mix. Watch out for those hermits and crabs though... They are in the end opportunistic and will eat your snails given the chance.

02/23/2011, 09:54 AM	#3
Wet Dreamer Registered Member Join Date: Feb 2011 Location: Gibbons, Ab, Canada Posts: 62	Here is the list of my stock: 1 Yellow Tang 2 Percula Clowns 1 Six Line Wrasse 1 Black/White Bannerfish 1 Lamarck's Angelfish 1 Lawnmower Blenny I feed them twice a day, once at lunch, either Omega flakes (1 pinch) or Pellets (15 pellets?), and once at night with either mysis or brine shrimp (1 small cube), then every 2-3 days i give them a half sheet of green seaweed. Does this sound right, or am I overfeeding them? Last night I moved the powerheads and some rock work around to try to get better flow on the sandbed to maybe help this situation!

02/23/2011, 10:45 AM	#5
jokim Registered Member Join Date: Feb 2011 Posts: 85	yes need some detritus eaters and scavangers