Sand bed issue

bambam918

New member
One of my theories is a possible mi I cycle however I wanted to run it by FRAG

My new 180 DT 90 sump has been running since May and since then I have had algae on the sand bed. It is aprox 1 inch deep and is sugar size. It's not GHA but it appears to have some "hair" to it, just extremely short. It does not really look like red slime because it's not really all that red. It's not Dino's because it's not clear either. The color it is closest to is brown......

I did have diatoms for about a week then it disappeared. I got this bloom shortly after and I thought it would go away but it has not. Since it did not disappear I decided to hook up my MR1 with carbon. I am using BRS ROX. I don't think it has really made a difference though. Been running for 4 weeks and just replaced it today, the 19th.

I don't have a phosphates test, I know I should have one, but I am confident it would read zero. I use a 5 stage RODI unit and TDS reads zero. I have have macro growing in the sump and trimmed it today. The macro did have red slime on it but had not over taken it.

The best idea I have come up with is either run GFO or do weekly WC for now. Currently I do 20% every two weeks

Any suggestions on getting the sand bed clean of this bloom?
 
Maybe looking at your flow... I know that is how I finally beat cyano was by moving my flow around to hit the collecting spots. Maybe post a picture of it here to help with ID, and more specific attacks...
 
I'd have to agree with flow issue, I just recently went through the same thing I used chemiclean and then pointed my wp40 and koralia towards the sand bed more. I still have a few spots since I'm not running gfo right now but sand is white as snow
 
I can post photos tomorrow. I think I will try the GFO and turn my MP's up. I have a MP60 and MP40 so I should not have an issue increasing flow. Thanks for the quick responses
 
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