My tank has been set up for 8 mos. 55G, 55# LR & 4" sandbed. Just switched from 440W to 330W VHO, running 10 hrs day. I have 100 nasarrius, 50 hermits, 24 bumble bee, mushrooms, 1 featherduster, 1 condylactis, 1 tang, 1 clown, 1 emerald, 1 scarlet & 1 peppermint & 2 cleaner shrimps, 1 firefish, 1 scooter, 1 lawnmower, 1 blue star, 1 anemone crab and 1 tree coral. My sandbed has lots of stuff in it when you look at it from the side but when I look at it from the underside of the tank it looks brand new. Is this normal? I have an on going battle with brownish green algae very heavy on the glass and many clumps of hair algae. Any opinions?
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Sandbed Doesn't Look Right
- Thread starter Lorac
- Start date
A few things:
first: The brownish algae-is it cyano (slime)? If so, in a new tank (less than 1 yr old) you may get a few blooms of it.
second: The hair algae-now this IS a problem (or indicative of one). What readings do you have for nitrate and phosphate? If they're high, there can be a few fixes. Four that I know of 1-reducing photoperiod; 2-make sure your using ro/di water for water changes and topping off, and that this water tests 0 for phosphate/nitrate; 3-overfeeding, How many times and how much are you feeding the inhabitants (including the live corals); and 4-additives, be very careful about what and how much of any additive you are using, and see how the tank responds to each additive (i.e.-increase in algae growth immediately after etc.).
As far as the actual DSB goes, I'll have to admit I'm not one to ask, I do know that the depth should be about 4", and the sand should be sugar sized.
first: The brownish algae-is it cyano (slime)? If so, in a new tank (less than 1 yr old) you may get a few blooms of it.
second: The hair algae-now this IS a problem (or indicative of one). What readings do you have for nitrate and phosphate? If they're high, there can be a few fixes. Four that I know of 1-reducing photoperiod; 2-make sure your using ro/di water for water changes and topping off, and that this water tests 0 for phosphate/nitrate; 3-overfeeding, How many times and how much are you feeding the inhabitants (including the live corals); and 4-additives, be very careful about what and how much of any additive you are using, and see how the tank responds to each additive (i.e.-increase in algae growth immediately after etc.).
As far as the actual DSB goes, I'll have to admit I'm not one to ask, I do know that the depth should be about 4", and the sand should be sugar sized.
The brown algae is slimmy and I keep hoping it will eventually go away. The hair isn't overhwelming yet but getting to me. Nobody seems to eat it. I have picked my inhabitants hoping for that. I decreased my lights from 440W to 330W for this reason. Have just been running it this way for a month, but no change in the hair. Also went from 12 hrs day to 10 at the same time. Maybe just need more time to see change on that. Buy my water from the fish store and he doesn't use DI. Can't find any and I can't afford one. But fish store swears it has no silicates. I don't supplement my corals at all. I feed high quality frozen food twice a day. The fish are starving and seem to eat it all. I am adding calcium & iodide once a week. Calcium not quite up to par yet - at 390. Have coraline on rocks but not much on back of tank. I test very faithfully every week - am, nitrate, nitrite, alk, calc, phos & ph - nothing out of the norm. I am wondering if I need to innoculate my sandbed or something like that.
Don't attempt to mix your sandbed manually, there is no reason to. If you are using sugar fine sand, leave it be. Nitrifying and denitrifying bacteria are present in all tank naturally. You do not need to do anything special to introduce them to your tank.
Do a simple test on sandbed though. Insert your fingers into the sand bed in various places. Insert all the way in and see if you can feel any sand clumping? As long as there are no clumping, leave them be.
You have awful lots of snails. 100 for a 55G tank? Plus snails, your tank has a heavy bio load. I am guessing a certain percentage of them may have already died and is contributing to your water quality problem. Frozen food are also notorious for their high PO4 content. What exactly is the reading you get on NO3 and PO4? It is normal if you test your water now and receive indication that all water parameter are within acceptable range. Many of the nutrient are already utilized/locked into micro algae tissue and your test kits won't be able to pick them up as micro algae and cyno-bacteria are super efficient in nutrient uptake.
First thing I would do is to discontiue Iodine dosing. Since you are not testing for them, how'd you know if you have overdosed your tank? I2 if added too much will directly lead to unsightly algae bloom. Too much could kill everything in your tank. Don't add specific chemicals if you have no way of accurately checking for them. I used to regularly dose lugols. I discontinued 3 months ago, and I swear I can see no differences before and after. I now wonder why'd I did them in the first place. I do have I2 test kits but they are really hard to read and even if I triple dose I still get same reading as I don't dose. Very confusing test kits from Salifert.
Test your store bought water for NO3 and PO4 too. In fact while you are at it, perform all tests on your source water. What do you use for top-off? Whatever it is, perform test on them too. Test for PH, Alk,NO2, NO3, and PO4. Also what is the test kit brand you have?
How often you perform water change? How much % each time you do WC? What else do you use for nutrient export?
Do a simple test on sandbed though. Insert your fingers into the sand bed in various places. Insert all the way in and see if you can feel any sand clumping? As long as there are no clumping, leave them be.
You have awful lots of snails. 100 for a 55G tank? Plus snails, your tank has a heavy bio load. I am guessing a certain percentage of them may have already died and is contributing to your water quality problem. Frozen food are also notorious for their high PO4 content. What exactly is the reading you get on NO3 and PO4? It is normal if you test your water now and receive indication that all water parameter are within acceptable range. Many of the nutrient are already utilized/locked into micro algae tissue and your test kits won't be able to pick them up as micro algae and cyno-bacteria are super efficient in nutrient uptake.
First thing I would do is to discontiue Iodine dosing. Since you are not testing for them, how'd you know if you have overdosed your tank? I2 if added too much will directly lead to unsightly algae bloom. Too much could kill everything in your tank. Don't add specific chemicals if you have no way of accurately checking for them. I used to regularly dose lugols. I discontinued 3 months ago, and I swear I can see no differences before and after. I now wonder why'd I did them in the first place. I do have I2 test kits but they are really hard to read and even if I triple dose I still get same reading as I don't dose. Very confusing test kits from Salifert.
Test your store bought water for NO3 and PO4 too. In fact while you are at it, perform all tests on your source water. What do you use for top-off? Whatever it is, perform test on them too. Test for PH, Alk,NO2, NO3, and PO4. Also what is the test kit brand you have?
How often you perform water change? How much % each time you do WC? What else do you use for nutrient export?
My sandbed has lots of stuff in it when you look at it from the side but when I look at it from the underside of the tank it looks brand new.
I'm no expert and can't see the bottom of my year old bed in the 120 gal, but as long as you're seeing worm trails, bubbles forming and various colors in the bed it should be working. From everything I've read, sandbeds take up to a year or more to mature fully and after that they should be reseeded once a year or so because some of the organisms will go extinct in a closed system like our tanks.
The bottom of my 4 month old 4" bed (also in a 55 gal) hasn't gotten colors near the bottom yet. This bed isn't a good comparison though, since my tank crashed three weeks ago from a heat wave. The bed did recycle my tank very quickly though.
I have been thinking of discontinuing the Iodide to see what happens. The only other thing I add is calcium and I will continue that as the calcium is only 390. I use Salifert test kits for alk & calc. Fastest for am, nitrate, nitrite, phosphate and ph. Use low level test on nitrate, nitrite & phosphate and it always barely registers. Have water tested by LFS periodically and we always agree. Ph stays at 8.0-8.1. I do 15% RO water every two weeks. Have Precision Marine skimmer that pulls out very dark stuff. Clean that same time I do water change. I have checked for clumping in the sand and haven't found any. Have a very stable temp set up that varies from 76.5-78.5. I know a lot of people run warmer tanks but I think my fish are healthier - have had the go around with Ich and since I have kept my temp lower have not had a problem. The salinity runs 1.025-1.026. I got all these snails thinking they would halp the algae, but it does seems like I have a tank full of snails. Would you pull some out?
Lorac, you said
No, their not. Your feeding twice a day is plenty, and it is normal for them to eat it all. It is also normal for them to appear hungry (coming to the front of the tank, looking for food) fish are notorius for looking for handouts (ever meet a dog who didn't appear when dinner was served? or a cat who didn't come running at the sound of a can opener?). You may want to cut back to once a day feeding for a while to see if this helps. Signs of starvation in a fish include listlesness, sunken stomach, showing skeletons (through their skin).I feed high quality frozen food twice a day. The fish are starving and seem to eat it all
I agree that it is normal cycling of your sandbed. My sandbed is about a year and one half old and it looks normal from the bottom. However, it looks nasty from the front and sides. Algae grows between the glass and the sand because the light travels down through the glass causing the algae to grow. You also have to remember that the worms and other critters will need time to migrate into the sandbed from the LR. Fighting conchs will help clean up that nasty algae on the sandbeds surface. Mine even clean the rocks.
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