HELP! move contents from 45->90. Sand turning brown

[fish1219]

Hello,
I move the contents of my 45->90 gallon on Friday. Contents moved were:
40-50 lbs of live rock
4 clowns
1 coral beauty
1 mandarin
1 lawn mower blenny
1 sebae aneome
misc snails/crabs
1 cleaner shrimp
1 candy cane LPS
misc soft corals
4-5 SPS frags
I did not move the live sand. The new tank has new sand and its currently turning brown. It also has air bubbles so the sand can be carried away. Kinda cool but I'm concern of a potential crash. Looking for suggestions.
water changes? amount and how often?
sand sifting animals? suggestions?

Thanks for any help. I plan to do a saltwaterfish.com or petsolutions.com order this week if anyone else is interested.

 

[chrisguy]

Sounds like diatoms. They happen and from what I understand there is not too much you can do about it.

The air bubble also happen. They will go away over time, but then build up as part of the nitrogen cycle (assuming you have a DSB).

As for sand sifting creatures, try to get some nasarius (sp?) snails and or a conch. They are good for sand. Also make sure you have lots of asteria (sp?) and some turbos. There is no such thing as too many snails.

 

[Arik]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6993089#post6993089 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by chrisguy
There is no such thing as too many snails.

Sure there is----your tank can't support an infinite number of snails indefintely, and most snails die prematurely in captivity. It's much more responsible to add a few at a time, and only add a few more if the algae grows faster than they can eat it. And remember no matter how many snails you have they aren't going to clean the glass, so save your money and buy a magfloat instead!

 

[gary greguire]

sounds like a normal part of the switch over to me don't start doing drastic things the diatoms should not last long. by adding your existing rock to the system the tank cycles almost instantly.