My sand bed is getting light brown can someone help?

[Keyman]

My sand bed is getting a light brown color. What am I doing wrong?

 

[Mike389]

tells us more about your setup.. and what you do to maintain your reef

 

[Keyman]

50 lbs of live rock and 20 lbs of live sand also have the following.
Reef octopus 6" pinwheel nwb150
Two hydro koralia evolution
Have a light fixture with t5 and LED
57 gals rr with 29 sump
Metal halides
Fish
One Flame angle
One small Yellow tang
Two clowns
One cleaner shrimp

 

[kingator]

diatoms maybe, how long has the tank been running ?

 

[Keyman]

Four months

 

[Chiefmcfuz]

What are your water parameters?

Do you have any pictures?

 

[dubs]

dymond goby along with water changes and u should be good to go

 

[piranhapat]

Your tank is starting to mature. That's normal like Kingator said its diatoms. It will run its cost but watch your Phoshates and over feeding. It will get a little worst and should get better if you keep nutrients down. You can add a reactor with GFO if your Phoshates are high. You can do water change and siphon some of diatom out. Other than that let it run it's course.

 

[Keyman]

How long will it last?

 

[Mike389]

not sure im dealing with a similar problem.... Diatoms feed on silicates so if your not using ro/di water this could be the source... i needed to replace my membrane so we will see if that solves my problems ill keep you informed

 

[piranhapat]

You can get clean up crew that can help. Other than that you can add bacteria which can help. Pick it up at your LFS....

 

[Imbarrie]

Diamond gobies can stir up a lot of dust but they will process a ton of sand.
Nassarius snails are great in sand as they will go after any food that lingers too long. Fighting conchs are good also.
Some reefers swear by a product called microbe lift. This populates the tank with more beneficial bacteria.

 

[Keyman]

I'm using ro di water.

 

[JARRETT SHARK]

I'm using ro di water.

Check your DI resin, had same issue and needed to be changers out
Lost a ton of coral!!!!
In the summer I been changing it out every month instead of every 3 months since water has mor ppm
Do you have a TDS meter?

 

[winsbxnyc]

get some sandsiffting star fish they do a good job cleamning the sand

 

[rookie07]

get some sandsiffting star fish they do a good job cleamning the sand

Don't buy a sand-sifting starfish if you only have 20 lbs of live sand (it will starve quickly).

 

[Juggernot55]

Don't buy a sand-sifting starfish if you only have 20 lbs of live sand (it will starve quickly).

+1 youre tank will not have enough to feed that starfish

 

[Keyman]

How mush sand would I need to have a sand sifting starfish?

 

[Mike389]

don't get a sand sifting star... when it runs out of food it digs into your sand bed and dies causing way more problems then you want.. get nassirus snails

 

[Keyman]

Thanks for all the help.