secret to no algae on sand bed

[heliguy71]

hey guys all the tanks i have seen so far have no algae on the sand bed and hardly any on the live rock.what is the secret to your success.i have 0-nitrate 0-phosphate but my silicate level is high around .5to 1.0 ppm.i do water changes every two weeks and i still have trouble.any ideas?

thanks mike

 

[customcolor]

mexican turbo, sand sifting goby, sand sifting starfish, 4" sand bed, almost 3 year old sand bed also...thats what i got...plus good flow

 

[kesslerkid01]

clean up crew water movement

 

[MrSquid]

My secret was a lot of giant nassarius snails and a sleeper banded goby. Lost the goby and replaced it with a sand sifting star. If course it doesn't do as good of a job as the goby did.

Dave - do you have problems with the turbos not being able to right themselves?

Sifting gobies are awesome to keep and fun to watch, but if you have corals on the substrate they'll make a mess on them. They'll also pick algae off the rocks. (I had a bryopsis issue at first and between the goby and my starry blenny, they picked it clean within days of getting a taste for it)

 

[jandlms]

What kind of water do you use for your makeup??? RO/DI? You can get false readings on N and P when you have a bunch of hair algae and other varieties in the tank. The algae is using up the N and P before it can be tested.
After you check/test your makeup water and it is still zero on N and P, order a bunch of cleanup crews. Reeftopia always has pretty good prices and packages.

 

[jlinzmaier]

hey guys all the tanks i have seen so far have no algae on the sand bed and hardly any on the live rock.what is the secret to your success.i have 0-nitrate 0-phosphate but my silicate level is high around .5to 1.0 ppm.i do water changes every two weeks and i still have trouble.any ideas?

thanks mike

I don't care what your tests say. If you've got algae growth you've got excess nitrate, phosphate, and likley many other dissolved organics in your tank.

A clean up crew will only recycle the nutrients. They eat the algae then their waste re-enters the water to fuel the algea growth again. A clean up crew is only part of the answer to managing algea. The true answer is managing the nutrients that fuel the algea growth, not just managing what will eat the algae.

You need to limit feedings, increase nutrient export, clean the tank of detritus as much possible, increase water flow so waste can get suspended and eventually sent towards filtration, use animals which will stir the sand bed to prevent detritus from creating a nutrient sink in your sand bed, increase water changes, use more GAC, use more GFO, etc...

The reason your tests are reading 0 can be for two reasons 1) the algea is uptaking the nutrients faster than they can become prevalent in the water column and 2) the hobby grade kits for N and P are quite in accurate and often read far less then what is actually in the water column.

The real fix here is increased husbandry not more animals which will increase the bioload. Remember that every animal in that tank contributes to the total bioload. The bioload is the total amount of animals contributing to dissolved organics within the water column. Adding a bunch more smails, starts, hermits and/or fish that will eat algea will only increase the bioload. Unfortunately there is no easy answer. I'm sure you want a quick and easy answer of what animal to add to eat the algae but there isn't one. It's your husbandry that needs to change.

Jeremy

 

[customcolor]

My secret was a lot of giant nassarius snails and a sleeper banded goby. Lost the goby and replaced it with a sand sifting star. If course it doesn't do as good of a job as the goby did.

Dave - do you have problems with the turbos not being able to right themselves?

Sifting gobies are awesome to keep and fun to watch, but if you have corals on the substrate they'll make a mess on them. They'll also pick algae off the rocks. (I had a bryopsis issue at first and between the goby and my starry blenny, they picked it clean within days of getting a taste for it)

not yet...i have had it since befor winter and the 2 i got are still going strong!! these 2 mexicans are awesome!

 

[heliguy71]

i should have pleny of flow one votech mp40 and a kor-4 power head,i use ro/water also.i also use phosban in a reactor,phoszorb and carbon in canister,and chemi pure in sump.chaeto in sump too,with a little live rock.

 

[Aquabucket]

With high silicates like that he could be getting diatom blooms (brown rust) on the sand bed and not algae. Algae typically grows on structures before it invades the sand bed.

To get the silicate levels down you can run a phosphate remover (most remove silicates so read the label first).

Its also important to use pure water with TDS readings as close to zero as possible.
You could also have cyanobacteria (red slime). Pics of your sand bed would help.

 

[heliguy71]

it looks like brown rust on the sand bed

 

[Fishcrazy06]

Do the Spike infamous no lights for three days!

 

[heliguy71]

won't that hurt my corals.i can,t fiqure out where they are coming from,that is the problem

 

[Fishcrazy06]

Nope it won't I will PM you a veryyyyy long thread. Ever since reading this I do this once everything 3 months or so!

 

[mr_X]

I don't care what your tests say. If you've got algae growth you've got excess nitrate, phosphate, and likley many other dissolved organics in your tank.

A clean up crew will only recycle the nutrients. They eat the algae then their waste re-enters the water to fuel the algea growth again. A clean up crew is only part of the answer to managing algea. The true answer is managing the nutrients that fuel the algea growth, not just managing what will eat the algae.

You need to limit feedings, increase nutrient export, clean the tank of detritus as much possible, increase water flow so waste can get suspended and eventually sent towards filtration, use animals which will stir the sand bed to prevent detritus from creating a nutrient sink in your sand bed, increase water changes, use more GAC, use more GFO, etc...

The reason your tests are reading 0 can be for two reasons 1) the algea is uptaking the nutrients faster than they can become prevalent in the water column and 2) the hobby grade kits for N and P are quite in accurate and often read far less then what is actually in the water column.

The real fix here is increased husbandry not more animals which will increase the bioload. Remember that every animal in that tank contributes to the total bioload. The bioload is the total amount of animals contributing to dissolved organics within the water column. Adding a bunch more smails, starts, hermits and/or fish that will eat algea will only increase the bioload. Unfortunately there is no easy answer. I'm sure you want a quick and easy answer of what animal to add to eat the algae but there isn't one. It's your husbandry that needs to change.

Jeremy

well said. you don't need sand sifting stars or nassarius snails. the secret is out!

 

[Bri Guy]

I just give mine a stir by hand if I see a spot looking dingy.....

But Jeremy is right, get it at its source.

What do you feed and how much??

 

[nkelr]

cant say it better than anyone else already said it. might want to try kent phosphate sponge. i would like that link too eric as you now my tank needs some attention as well

 

[Paul_N]

I had a barred dragon goby that kept my sand spotless. I always figured I had to have it in there to keep the sand clean. I got rid of it a month ago because he kept covering my corals and clams with sand and guess what, sand is still spotless. Like everyone else has said, when you get the nutrients under control and have sufficient flow in the tank, the sand will stay clean. Also with an established sand bed the spaghetti worms and bristle worms will do there part. If you want to have a dsb in tank for all the live critters then a sand sifting star is really not an option as it will devour everything in the sand in no time flat and then most likely die.

How deep is your sand bed and how long has the tank been up?

 

[nkelr]

will the star die of starfation or something it ate??? might sound like a stupid question

 

[Paul_N]

Starvation because it basically eats everything in the sandbed and it doesn't grow fast enough for it. I forget where, I read that it's not if but when they will die. I tried 2 in my 75 and lost both within 6 months.

 

[Jhildebrand]

+1. It's a question of when, not if as far as sand sifting stars go. They only live as long as there's food in the sand, and you don't want them removing what they eat. They really shouldn't be collected and do more harm than good, IMO. They're popular because sellers can promote them as reef-safe cleaners and have another item to sell you when a problem arises.

Can we have a pic please? Time set up and depth is key too. Way too many people have the 'in between' sandbed. You need it deep (think several inches + for a deep sandbed filter) or shallow for decoration (1" or less). Diatoms aren't really an issue and they usually show up on a new tank as the tank gets established. Last week I moved a large rock and the new sand that was exposed to the light has a small diatom patch. It will be gone soon and I'll just leave it. If you don't have a nutrient issue, you should not have a sandbed issue.