Sand Bed Turned Different Colors

[VampLillith]

I have a sand bed in my tank. The surface sand is regular colored. But the layers under turned to different colors. I can see from looking all around the sides of the tank the diff colors. From Black, Brown, Red, Green, Pink...is that normal? Could this make nitrates stay up?

 

[ZANYMASTER]

Normal,yes.It's a good thing

 

[JLAudio]

What I do (a bit controversial) but if don regularly it makes sand bed immaculate is every water change I sue the sypon to break those patches up and once a month I give sand a good stir up and run a diatom filter for 24hrs. or so and every few hours I stir it up again.

Ive been told this will put alot of nitrates and phosphates into my water but I feel if you stay consistant with this practice and do not allow it to buiild up it will ultimately minimalize nitrates, phosphates etc. However I would imagine an initial spike with all that build up in that bed

 

[Hungriee]

you could always get some inverts or sifting gobies to shift your sand a bit

 

[reefman]

that band of algea is fueled by the lighting outside the tank. its harmless but unsightly. some people cover it up with black tape.
this conbributes to algea at the top layer of sand against the glass. its almost the place u mostly dont clean.

 

[VampLillith]

so should i clean it or just leave it alone? i'm just trying to bring my nitrates down and it wont...i've tryed everything even vodka dosing and nothing seem to work.

 

[JonnyIce]

crazy I have simliar stuff...a cool neon green band in the front though, just don't know if it's normal and healthy...I think I need to get a small diamond goby...didn't mean to hijack!