Chela101

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Hi you guys, so I have a 25 gallon tank, and everything is kinda new meaning it’s like 6 months in. So kinda still new. And everything is great except my sand… which is kinda like a light brown. With a tint of orange… if anyone can help me I would greatly appreciate it. I will add a picture and also I’m about to check my water perimeters

IMG_1551.jpeg
 

HankstankXXL750

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6 months seems a little long, but it could be diatoms. They appear due to the silicate in the sand. Looks like a fine layer of dust. If it is more substantial it could be a nuisance algae. What do you have for sand sifters?
 
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Chela101

Chela101

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6 months seems a little long, but it could be diatoms. They appear due to the silicate in the sand. Looks like a fine layer of dust. If it is more substantial it could be a nuisance algae. What do you have for sand sifters?
I don’t have any fish at the moment I haven’t found a goby in my LFS and mandarins are too much for me. Meaning that I don’t want to get one that I can’t maintain his type of diet. But I do have a turbo snail, those pointy shell that looks like a triangle and has like purple-ish color on its shell. And I only have one. And a blue leg hermit crab. Also just 1
 

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I don’t have any fish at the moment I haven’t found a goby in my LFS and mandarins are too much for me. Meaning that I don’t want to get one that I can’t maintain his type of diet. But I do have a turbo snail, those pointy shell that looks like a triangle and has like purple-ish color on its shell. And I only have one. And a blue leg hermit crab. Also just 1
I'd suggest a strombus snail (conch) which will turn over the substrate and keep it clean. You would need to provide some food for it as well.

Do you know your Nitrate and Phosphate levels as it is also possibly the start of Dino's
 

Mr. Mojo Rising

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did you just turn on your light recently? Your tank is looking pretty clean for 6 month old tank.

Are you using rodi water or tap water?
 
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Chela101

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did you just turn on your light recently? Your tank is looking pretty clean for 6 month old tank.

Are you using rodi water or tap water?
No, but we do have it in our living room and we have been opening our curtains to let the sun in. So the light hits it a bit. During the day when we also have our tank lights on. And we always use RODI water from our LFS, and the rock you see behind is a new rock we added, we have another rock on the right side that you can’t see in the picture that was covered in algae but I took it out and scrubbed it off. But the algae didn’t have little air pockets. Like I have seen Dino…
 
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Chela101

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I'd suggest a strombus snail (conch) which will turn over the substrate and keep it clean. You would need to provide some food for it as well.

Do you know your Nitrate and Phosphate levels as it is also possibly the start of Dino's
I haven’t had luck finding those, and what do they eat?
 

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I haven’t had luck finding those, and what do they eat?
Strombidae conchs are generally herbivores that eat various forms of algae. I can't speak for all types of conch but my strawberry/tiger conchs seem to like Hikari Seaweed Extreme sinking pellets fine, but they would probably accept about any algae wafers, as long as they soften in the water. They like nori sheets also, but I only feed nori to them ocassionally because I don't think it's particularly nutritious after the drying process, but most of the dry marine herbivore foods are vitamin supplemented so they should be fine as part of the regular diet. I think their favorite food though is live soft hair algaes that grow on the rockwork and any algae that grows on the glass.

Edit: I just noticed your tank is 25 gallons so I definitely would go for a small species like a tiger/strawberry conch (different common names for the same two species that get used interchangeably), they get about three inches in shell length. There's also "nano conchs" out there that I know people on these forums breed but their availability is much more spotty. They're really cute goofy looking animals and fun to watch.
 
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formallydehyde

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Also I wouldn't worry terribly about diatoms in general, they're kind of unsightly but they're a good sign of a maturing tank imo and help prevent cyanobacterial and dinoflagellate blooms. (Conchs leave enough diatoms behind after eating/sand stirring that you're probably not going to need to worry about them taking away too many either lol)
 

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