Help w\ my brown algae on sand!!!

[ZC]

I seem to have a problem with brown algae on my sand. It's a very dark brown algae that hardens almost on the sand. I always do my 10% water changes every week, i just can't seem to get it to go away. I have TONS of nassarius snails to sift through the sand. My lighting cycle is on a 10 hour cycle and I have 2 175w MH's. Temp never gets above 79.....all perameters are in check!

I am open to any ideas as what to do?

I have though of getting a sea cuke, or a sand sifting star, more nassarius snails........ i dunno, but it's driving me crazy! Add a phosban reactor, to take out phosphates if there are any......

Anyone with ideas will not go over looked!

Thanks in advance!

 

[bufu11]

id say try cutting the light cycle to 8 hours if u already use ro/di water but if you dont then start using it and keep your lioght cycle the same

 

[sir_dudeguy]

First, is it a new tank? if so, thats likely your problem and it will go away.

However, i've found that nassarius dont really "sift" the sand so to speak...they just kinda burrow in it. By sifting i usually think of something like a goby that actually pics the sand up and sifts it thru its gills and drops it back in another place. (goby is one way to go too)

But the nassarius seem to burrow underneith the top layer anyways, so they're not really disturbing the algae.

Next, what are your nitrates and phosphates? You say all params are in check, but lots of people seem to completely skip over these 2 and dont even know what they are.

If you want something to eat the stuff, i've had great luck with cerith snails eating brown algae. Nassarius wont touch the algae, but ceriths will actually eat it.

Last, like i said above, theres a few gobies and stuff that are great for moving the sand around. Theres one thats like a diamond goby or somethign like that thats sposed to be really good for that. Maybe consider one of those.

 

[Glasslaer]

I had brown algae that I would seem to have under control.. then I would do a water change and it would come back. My nitrates and phosphates were fine.. so I bought a silicates test kit and there was my problem. My tank was 0.5-1 ppm (I think it measures in ppm), but I was using tap water, as ours was quite good, and the silicates in that were above 8-10 ppm. My filter was doing great at getting it, but each water change reintroduced the problem. Going to RO water cured that problem.

I do notice it when I use certain foods too.

 

[PUGroyale]

like stated above RO/DI water will help... as will increasing the flow. Look into a strombus gigas to patrol the sand bed, they've got a trunk like an elephant and spend all day hoovering the sand bed

 

[outy]

ZC

tell us more about the tank, how long has it been up water quality ect.

a pic would go a long way as well.

without more info were shootin blanks

all i have to go on is aggressive reef and algea. with that all i can think of is high phosphates and possibly nitrates.

 

[chrismunn]

ide say that saying you have hard brown algae on your sand bed doesnt give anybody near enough information to give a relavant solution to your problem. tank params please, picture if you have it? any information about the tank will be usefull, from when it was set up, to your filtration, to what you have in the tank. tell it all!

 

[chrismunn]

wow, i just read my own post and realized something.... im kinda a jerk huh?
sorry ZC, i didnt mean it like that!...