Red Stuff on Sand

[Serren]

Well I got six months in my tank before having to ask a question. Anyone want to share with me why my sand is turning red, and how I should fix this issue. Thanks!

 

[Munster49]

Cyano bacteria. Chemi-Clean is supposed to be reef safe. Never had to use it myself, but I've seen people write about with mixed results.

 

[TigeBell]

You can also increase the flow in the main tank and lights out for 3 days should be good.

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2279039

 

[Gone Tidepoolin]

Manually remove what you can, do a water change.
Check the phosphate levels.

 

[bigmus]

All of the above and cut back on your feeding, generally it comes from overfeeding

 

[Brieninsac]

I battled Cyano for months doing lights out, reducing feedings, increased flow, vacuuming it up and so on. The only thing that worked was Chemi-clean. 3-days later it was gone and has never come back.

 

[Serren]

I'll try the Chemi-Clean first. Thanks for the tips!

 

[RonMidtownStomp]

You have a tiny tank. That much die-off from chemicals could really cause a lot of problems. Good water changes, gfo and massive amounts of flow and my cyano phase passed in about a month. It's pretty clear from the photo that's in a low-flow area.

 

[Ssteve]

I used Vibrant and it worked great. huge thread on the "other" forum about it and a vast number report great results.

 

[Serren]

Yeah, that is a low flow section of my tank. I have the Jebao Wavemaker on the left side.
I'm going to look for another for the right side so they can sync up and create some cool waves and such.

I changed 20% of the tank water yesterday, and everything is looking good. I did manually removed the bulk of the cyano before adding the chemical, so there was not a huge area that died.

My fish are made that I'm not feeding them as much. I was feeding two cubes of frozen every evening. Now one cube, and they look hungry.

 

[RonMidtownStomp]

I believe most fish should be fed 2-4 times a day.

 

[Serren]

No wonder they are hungry all the time. I'm starving them. :-( I've switched to twice a day feedings.