Help

[Reef addict 01]

hey guys I noticed that I was getting a lot of brown sand in the aquarium, I did a 15 gallon water change on my 65 gallon tank I did the water change through the sand bed. sifted all the sand around and the brown was gone. the very next day it was back its light brown powdery substance. my parameters are as follows: pH 8.3 ammonia 0 nitrite 0 nitrate around 40ppm

 

[robbrouse]

How old is your tank.. The brown sand is part of the new tank.. A photo would help.

 

[Tahoe61]

You want to avoid disturbing the sand bed like that in the future expecially once the tank has been set up for awhile. The brown appearence could be diatoms or cyanobacteria neither will be adversely affected by mixing the sand bed. What is your water source, how old is the tank, do you have enoughf flow?

 

[Reef addict 01]

Ill post a photo when i get back from hunting, i use ro water from a local purified water company, i have a wave pump and a power head and then the flow produced by my carbon filter. Should i add more live sand now that ive disturbed the sand bed so much? My tank is over a year old but this continues to be a problem. Im learning how to vodka dose now.

 

[mcarroll]

40 ppm Nitrates is pretty high. Sounds like some blend of over-feeding/overstocking/lack of water changes/etc. I would do some large (~20-30%) water changes every day, or every other day until you're <=10 ppm. Do your best to fix whatever caused them to get that high as well so you don't have a repeat experience. Could even be lack of water flow, poorly functioning filter, etc...

Vodka dosing (et al) is interesting, but worth keeping in mind that lack of vodka isn't what caused/allowed nitrates to get that high. I would fix the problem rather than adding more chemistry to the works.

-Matt

 

[dadof4]

Sounds like Diatoms, a normal part of the cycle at that phase. When you move water over it it blows around like dust. Manual removal every few days and time and it should go away.