? Sand turning brown?

[Freemason1970]

Can anyone help me with why my sand keeps turning brown and what I can do to stop it? My levils seem to be good, ammonia 0, nitrite 0, ph 8.2, a little bit of nitrate, and salinity around 1.024.

I have a 75 gallon tank with a sump refugium (about 20 gallons) with an Octopus skimmer. I have 4 fish a Yellow tang, clown, Flame angel and a foxface along with one coral a purple leather.

I just put on 2 Radion Gen 2 lights but I had the same problem beforehand. I cleaned most of the discolored sand out but it cam right back. I feed the fish once a day with a tiny amount of flakes and a cube of frozen shrimp.

 

[duperdave]

how old is the tank it sounds like a diatoms.that's the case it should go away on its own

 

[Freemason1970]

The tanks is running since December.

 

[mcgyvr]

thats typically normal.. and will go away or be greatly reduced as the tank "matures"..

 

[dkeller_nc]

One other thing to consider is that it's not normal for sand in a reef tank to be completely white. Way back in the late 80's and early 90's a standard tank maintenance routine for fish-only tanks in doctor's offices, commercial buildings, etc... was to remove the coral skeletons and bleach them white, neutralize the bleach residue and put them back in the tank. But bleached-white skeletons is definitely not normal from a "nature" perspective.

 

[mh6i]

You could always use a turkey baster to turn over the sand a bit and keep it cleaner looking. I always do it during water changes to level out the sand but there's no reason it couldn't be done in between water changes too just to move the sand around.

 

[Every1jockzjay]

Your tank will most likely go through all types of cycles...i had just about every type of alhae come and go and eventually if you take care of your tank and have the right equiptment it will alllll go away and you will be algae free or close to it

 

[rfgonzo]

Since your tanks only been up a couple months it's sounds like new tank syndrome still where you're getting diatoms. What is your lighting schedule? It might help by keeping your lights on a little bit less.

 

[Freemason1970]

Thank you all for the help.

my light schedule is on at 9am and off at 9pm

 

[Jandawil]

Do you have any snails or hermits in there? They should eat all that stuff.

 

[Strobes]

I had the same problem for the first few months of my tank. Seemed to be worse the more the lights were on. It will go away but reducing the light will help a lot.

 

[oh207]

Its likely diatoms. Part of new tank syndrome. Just ensure you have good flow and perhaps reduce the light cycle or intensity. What percentage are the radions running for during the 12hrs?
If the looks really bothers you, then you can use a syphon to clean it out during regular water changes. I won't recommend that you stir the sandbed in the tank, that can create a host of other issues that you wouldn't want.

 

[fobeboy]

All i can say is .... have more patiente .. thats the answer to ur question... i just set up my nano recently about 1month an all i have is a bunch of snail....still planing to wait 1 or 2 more month before i add corals...as far as live stock i have none... im kinda old school... i just ghosts feed and drop a jumbo size shrimp....

 

[Freemason1970]

Thank you everyone for your help.
patients is the key. I'll just wait it out.

just wanted to make sure nothing was going wrong.

:wave: