Help with sand bed

[Aaronsreef]

This isn’t my tank but I’m helping a friend with issues with he's tank

He seems to have some nasty brown slime snot algae growing on he’s sand bed .

When raked it disappears for about a hour then grows back .

Promblem started after letting nitrate bottom out

He’s been fighting it for about 2 months now ,

Alk 7.6
Cal 440
Mag 1300
Ph 8.2
Salt 1025
P04 0.15 to 0.05
N03 17.8

Eco tech lights AB+ on about 40%

He was told to dose water glass , but that didn’t help one bit . Apart from take silicate thou the roof .

Anyone had this ? How did you fix it ?

Sorry for pics all he sent me .

 

[Ziggy17]

Take a sample of the brown stuff, look at it under a microscope at least 400x magnification. Post a picture. You need to identify what it is before you can get rid of it.

If it’s LCA r SCA, it take months of dosing water glass to get rid of them. Nothing good happens fast in reefing.

 

[Subsea]

White light would help with identification & advice!

Vacuum sandbed with partial water change.

 

[Subsea]

This isn’t my tank but I’m helping a friend with issues with he's tank

He seems to have some nasty brown slime snot algae growing on he’s sand bed .

When raked it disappears for about a hour then grows back .

Promblem started after letting nitrate bottom out

He’s been fighting it for about 2 months now ,

Alk 7.6
Cal 440
Mag 1300
Ph 8.2
Salt 1025
P04 0.15 to 0.05
N03 17.8

Eco tech lights AB+ on about 40%

He was told to dose water glass , but that didn’t help one bit . Apart from take silicate thou the roof .

Anyone had this ? How did you fix it ?

Sorry for pics all he sent me .

Dosing silicates grows all algae, including beneficial diatoms. The idea is to promote competition amongst desirable organisms to outcompete nuisance algae.

I dose silicates for my sponges and include janitors as consumers of undesirable algae & bacterial slims.

 

[Aaronsreef]

Take a sample of the brown stuff, look at it under a microscope at least 400x magnification. Post a picture. You need to identify what it is before you can get rid of it.

If it’s LCA r SCA, it take months of dosing water glass to get rid of them. Nothing good happens fast in reefing.

Sorry for the late reply as I’m a 3rd wheel .

 

[Ziggy17]

Sorry for the late reply as I’m a 3rd wheel .

Yeah, that’s going to take time and patience. Keep dosing Si at 3-6 ppm. I use the Columbia test kit. Works well. Keep the sand dirty. Keep the nutrients up.
Most of all, Patience.

If he wants to try something to help speed it up, there’s a guy that makes and sells a UV sweeper that you can use on the sand bed. I tried it with some success. Some swear by it. For me, it was time and patience that got rid of my LCA.