Brown sand

pwendlandt

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Hello! I was wondering if anyone could help me out with a small issue with algae.

For context: I’ve had this 20 gallon water box for almost 5 months now, everything was going perfectly and smooth and a month ago. I was talking to my LFS and with some advice I decided to change change the filter sock to filter wool which was working perfectly. I went on a trip for a few days and when I came back the whole tank was covered in brown algae. I scraped all the glass and moved the sand a bit (even tho I have multiple sand sifting creatures such as a sand shifting star fish a burrowing urchin, a cone snail and a wrasse that loves to sand surf). I changed the filter floss and it seems that at night the algae is gone but by the afternoon of the next day it’s back. Is there a way to prevent it from coming back? Or do I just have to let it be there until it’s not anymore? Maybe I have the light on too strong. Here are a few pictures for reference

IMG_6696.jpeg IMG_6695.jpeg IMG_6697.jpeg
 

Sophie"s mom

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I am no expert, but this looks like diatoms to me. Hopefully somebody else will come in with more knowledge. This is very typical for a fairly new tank. Get some good CUC.
 

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