Hi
My 100g tank is just about a year old and over this period the sand bed has steadily gone dirty with the colour changing from white/off-white to brownish. This is despite me using a gravel vac to stir and clean the sand every fortnight during my water changes. However that doesn't seem to be helping. I have also tried using a bacteria based product to lossen dirt and grime with the hope that it would help, but no results. A second issue I face is a reddish growth similar to coralline algae between by sand bed and glass growth. Don't know how best to clean it without moving lots of sand and upsetting my corals and rock work.
I would appreciate some feedback and help on this. Is it actually only dirt or some kind of algae/bacteria and how do get rid of it. Pictures given below-
My 100g tank is just about a year old and over this period the sand bed has steadily gone dirty with the colour changing from white/off-white to brownish. This is despite me using a gravel vac to stir and clean the sand every fortnight during my water changes. However that doesn't seem to be helping. I have also tried using a bacteria based product to lossen dirt and grime with the hope that it would help, but no results. A second issue I face is a reddish growth similar to coralline algae between by sand bed and glass growth. Don't know how best to clean it without moving lots of sand and upsetting my corals and rock work.
I would appreciate some feedback and help on this. Is it actually only dirt or some kind of algae/bacteria and how do get rid of it. Pictures given below-