How to keep sand clean from alagae

lviva003 · Mar 6, 2015

Hello everyone,

Basically my issue is with green algae building on my sand. No matter what I do, for some reason it keeps coming back. I've tried sucking up the algae, lights out, and stirring the sand. For some reason, I have not been able to to succeed with a clean sand bed. My sand bed is probably about an inch. I've had the tank for over year.

Parameterers:

Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: <5
Ph: 8
Salinity: 1.025-1.026
Phosphate: 0
Calcium: 450
Alkalinity: 9
Magnesium: 1300

My tank is a 36 gallon bowfront and I make my own water with BRS RODI filter and I use crystal reef salt . Before, I had 3 jebao circulation pumps: 1 wp25, 1 RW8, and 1 RW4 which were replaced with a GYRE maxspect 130 (running at 40%). I can't raise the gyre anymore because it will start blowing off sand everywhere. I have a photon 24 reefbredders light. I do not have a sump. Before I had a Reef Octopus skimmer which was replaced with a JNS Cone skimmer (which is driving me crazy because it won't stop producing air bubbles). I also have a Hydor canister filter that runs filter floss and GFO (which I throughly clean every two weeks). I also have a BRS mini which runs the high granular carbon. As far as fish, I have 1 clownfish, 1 bicolor blenny, 1 wrasse possum, 1 firefish, and 1 royal gramma. All the fish fish get along and get fed half of PE mysis cube everyday. Water change is performed every two weeks (30-35%).

If someone can chime in with some advise I will highly appreciated. I also forgot to mention that I have like 4 nassarious snail, and other types of snail. Lastly, my algae issue is only on the sand, everything else is clean from algae.

Thanks!

StevenBell · Mar 6, 2015

Get a really good clean up crew!Toss in some hermits,astreas and ceriths.They will make things easier for you

BayouCityReefer · Mar 6, 2015

^ the only thing I would add to the list is a Fighting Conch and maybe 3-5 Nassira Snails (Zombie snails). Sand shifting star fish work great too but after a month or two, you might have to keep an eye on him so he doesn't starve to death.

AdamNC · Mar 6, 2015

Scarlet Red Hermits, Nassarius Snails and Emerald Crabs keep my sand pretty clean.

LetItReef · Mar 6, 2015

Used to have the same problem and everyday trying to figure out the cause, Params were good and checked. Find out that the bottom of the tank is somewhat hitting sunlight since then I partially close the window, secondly, I replaced T5 to LED then added Tiger Conch, up until now no Algae on the sand bed.

shred5 · Mar 6, 2015

If the sand is new this is normal but My guess is your sand has bound phosphates and is releasing them... If you had high phosphate in the past it will bind to any calcium carbonate and can be released back into the water column later.
You may have to replace the sand... You may eventually get it under control with phosphate binders like gfo...

lviva003 · Mar 6, 2015

I'm going to try a good cleaning crew from LFS. Anybody know what a good number would be? Around 20 snails? And what is high phosphates? I think the highest in my tank it has been it was probably about .5 and that was months ago. The algae is only located on the front right hand corner of the tank. Should I just suck all that sand and then add new sand later? Would that affect my tank in any way as far as parameters? I used pink fiji sand in the beginning.

haleyf1024 · Mar 6, 2015

I have about 10 nass snails and would still get more in my 110. I had a green algae and brown diatom bloom and they took care of it along with my sand sifting star, fighting conch, and about 80 blue legged hermits. I also stirred the sand myself, and it resolved itself within a week or two.

ffighter17 · Mar 6, 2015

Can you add more flow to your problem area only? I was having similar issues a while back and finally found the sweet spot for flow and no longer have any problems.

Reefing Madness · Mar 6, 2015

shred5 said:
If the sand is new this is normal but My guess is your sand has bound phosphates and is releasing them... If you had high phosphate in the past it will bind to any calcium carbonate and can be released back into the water column later.
You may have to replace the sand... You may eventually get it under control with phosphate binders like gfo...

I agree with this, as I don't have but a handful of Turbo Snails in my tank, and they never go on the sand bed, I don't have an algae problem on the sand bed.