Algae on sand ?

[Bob46]

Does any one have any idea what kind of algae this is ? Tank has been running about 6 months its a 75 with 216 watts of t5s. There is very little hair algae only this crap on my sand. I have done tons of 15 gallon water changes and siphoned it out several times but it keeps coming back.

 

[Bob46]

And some more.

 

[nmotz]

Hmm...Looks like a cross between green slime and hair algae or something. You could try a blackout for a few days. But if this is your display that'll be hard to maintain. Still, if your photoperiod is too long than it will encourage vigorous algae growth.

The presence of algae of any kind means that your tank is high in nutrients, namely phosphate and nitrate if I had to guess. What makes things more complicated is that your tests may show very little or zero of these nutrients but that's only because the algae is consuming them to stay alive.

Something is leaking nutrients into the tank. It might be the sand bed itself. Is it a DSB?

Other things to consider: are you overstocked? Is your protein skimmer working properly? Do you have healthy macroalgae growing in your tank or sump?

 

[Bob46]

The sand bed is about 2 " deep. I have a Royal Gramma 2 small clown fish a lawnmower blenny and a cleaner shrimp. Also a tubo snail and 10 certh snails.

High flow seems to help but my powerheads blow my sand around. I have tried moving the powerheads a 1000 different places with no luck. Im about ready to remove the sand and replace it special grade reef sand.My nitrates wont go down either they stay at 60ppm even with all the water changes. My lights are on 12 hours a day. 10 hours of all lights and two hours of blue lights. I have no sump and the protien skimmer is on the way.

 

[nmotz]

The sand bed is about 2 " deep. I have a Royal Gramma 2 small clown fish a lawnmower blenny and a cleaner shrimp. Also a tubo snail and 10 certh snails.

High flow seems to help but my powerheads blow my sand around. I have tried moving the powerheads a 1000 different places with no luck. Im about ready to remove the sand and replace it special grade reef sand.My nitrates wont go down either they stay at 60ppm even with all the water changes. My lights are on 12 hours a day. 10 hours of all lights and two hours of blue lights. I have no sump and the protien skimmer is on the way.

Aha, there's the issue then: high nitrates. The skimmer is essential for helping those go down. The other thing you should do is add some microalgae to the tank. Chaeto algae is great for absorbing nitrates. Your photoperiod doesn't seem to be the problem, you just need a skimmer and some macro. Good luck!