Sand bed nightmare

[Lesley]

HI,
new to all of this hoping some one can help ?
Bought a second had tank (6months old) when we moved it the previous owner told us to not wash the sand (crushed coral ag) because we would lose all the good bacteria. So we used it (it was out of the water but still wet for about 4hours). We have now had the tank for about 7 months and have had a constant battle with algae (only on the sand bed only). It isn't diatoms as we had that for about 3 weeks after the move and that went away and was replaced with a constant brown/geen covering that seems to get worse with lights on ?
It is not a DSB it is shallow. If I stir it it looks great for an hour or so and then the brown green start appearing again. We have vacuumed and have plenty of flow. 2 x tunze 6015 and 2 x tunze 6055
Every so often when stirring the bed I find what I can only describe as a clump of sand (seem to be jelly like) ?
We do 200litre water change every fortnight, run a carbon and phos reactor with rowaphos and my readings are always steady. I even take water to local lfs regularly to double check.
I dont know if this has anything to do with it but I do have to wipe the glass most days as I get a powdery green film on it ?
I feed fish every 2nd day with mysis shrimp and every other day with seaweed clip as we have tangs. I understand that the phos reading can be a false reading, but I am at a loss and am getting horribly frustrated with the look of the sand and don't understand why its been going on so long ?

Ammonia 0 Nitrite 0 Nitrate 0.02 elos test kits Phosphate 0.02 Hanna checker Alk 8.2 hanna checker calcium 440 hanna checker mag 1250 elos salinity 1.025

 

[Kgedelian]

That's funny my tank Is (6months old) new and im having the same thing,but even all over my rocks, I had to get 4 Emerald Crabs for the rock & a Orange Spot Diamond Goby for the sand bed, there both superb algae eaters and thay work non stop, I don't know why I get the constant brown/geen but I just do, but that's what I have to do to keep up on it.

 

[Grissino]

I see your problem. You're changing out litres of water and not gallons. That's a problem...

No just kidding.

I had this same problem. What helped me were constant weekly water changes and Red Sea's NOPOX. I now change out only 5 gallons every week for my 125 AND add 1 mL of NOPOX.

NO ALGAE PROBLEMS AT ALL!

I hope this helps.

 

[Grissino]

That's 10 mL per night...sorry

 

[Lesley]

Have recently been looking at the red sea NOPOX and had mixed feelings about dosing. Some review say that if you go away and dont dose daily you can upset the balance of your tank and lose corals and livestock ?
WE have a 1000litre tank and it would also work out quite expensive, but if you honestly feel it helps then I will give it a go ! Do you under dose or is do you follow directions, I have also read that it is safter to under dose, but does it have the same affect on the algae ?

 

[Grissino]

It tells you to start out at 10 and then back off to half that. I did and the algae came right back so I've been steadily adding 10 ml for 3 months now. It's great stuff!

 

[Lesley]

WE had a good clean up crew of crabs etc and than some idiot (we didnt do research ) talked us into a Red Coris Wrasse and he ate them all. we now only have snails left ! Been trying to catch him for about 3 months not as he is attacking our green spotted dragonets grrrr..

 

[Grissino]

You'd be talking less than 20 mls per day. A Liter is $21. Just bought some online today. BTW where are you located if you don't mind me asking.

 

[Lesley]

Thanks will def give it a go, I did hear some really good things about it. Do you have to use reef energy A & B with it too ?

 

[Grissino]

I haven't yet but I have a bottle of each.

 

[Lesley]

cool,, thanks for your help. How long did it take for you to start noticing a difference in the algae situation ?

 

[Grissino]

Almost immediately. Maybe a couple of days.

 

[Grissino]

It was gone in about 2 days.

 

[Kgedelian]

Id say get your clean up crew back 1st, thats like a must have thing.Emerald Crabs for the rock & a Diamond Goby for the bed there fun,reef safe, and peaceful,

 

[Lesley]

I am actually in Adelaide South Australia and red sea products are really expensive. 500ml cost $36.95 here. But sounds like it is worth it. WE have 11 stom snails and about 15 variety of others.
I am not going to buy any more crabs and cuc until wrasse is gone, I don't think is is fair to buy a living creature to KNOW it will be eaten in less than a week ! Wrasse goes then re-stock CUC. lol

 

[Grissino]

Yeah. I'd highly recommend the NOPOX. Ask me on a few weeks about the Energy.

 

[TrialandError]

Where do you get your water from? If you have your own RODI unit when was the last time you cleaned the container you store the water in. I used a bucket and every time I put top off water in my tank I would get algae in the spot I poured it in my tank. Cleaned my water storage container and it has helped a lot.

 

[Grissino]

Sounds like trial and error

 

[chefb_5]

Have u guys every thought of making a algae scrubber? They are a total of 8-12$ and this keeps ur algae in one spot and keeps u from having to dose. It's a upflow alage scrubber so it goes in ur sump not above the sump, so it's more effective because it has double sides. It works really well in keeping nitrates and phosphates down and I have even heard people taking out there skimmer even in a big tank. I won't go that far, but have did alot of research about them.

 

[Lesley]

Photo of lumps in sandbed

Its hard to see but each of those clumps of sand are stuck together into a blob, its almost like glued together, one has a brownish tinge the other is normal sand colour.
You can pick them up with your hand and they come out in one piece stuck together
I have lots of these throughout my sandbed ??
Any ideas ???