Sand Help! Keeping my sand white!

[W@tchm@n]

Hey guys..

Looking for some guidance please...
I’m extremely envious of everyone and their nice clean sandbed!

My tank has been up and running for a year and half more or less (maybe a touch longer) and I seem to have been having this issue from the get go.
My sand bed gets brown very quickly, not a thick brown slime... just brown, almost like a heavy dusting.. but pretty rapidly.

I siphon regularly, stays clean for about a day. After 2 days or so its brown and ugly.
I don’t have much algae forming on the glass... glass starts to develop some algae and needs cleaning after about 3-4 days ish, which is normal, right?

There is no direct sunlight in the room, so blackout hours are totally black!
I am away at work during the day so my lighting cycle is from 3PM to 9PM... 6 hours total.
I have an ATI Sunpower 6x80 bulb fixture running:
3x Euroquatics blue pop and 1 ATI Blue plus on channel 1 (running for all 6 hrs between 3-9PM).
1x ATI Coral Plus and 1x ATI Purple Plus on channel 2 (running for 2 hrs, between 4-6PM).

I run GFO and have tested the following params using Salifert kits:
Nitrate: between 5 to 10ppm
Nitrite: 0
Phosphate: 0, Undetectable at reactor outlet as well as display.
PH: 7.7 tested at about 8PM.
Alk: 10.7dKH (Hanna)
Calcium: 575ppm (a bit high) (Hanna)
Mag: 1500ppm

Apart from Calcium being abit hight, all params look to be OK, right?

Could any of the above be causing this issue? I don’t believe my lighting or schedule could be causing this. The ATI bulbs have been changed recently, about 2-3 months old now... and I have been having this issue for a long time.

Any advice or guidance would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Gareth elliott]

Sounds like diatoms. You could try controlling silica. Gfo will lower both silica and phosphate.

I personally one day just didn’t have diatoms. I did not attempt to control them just reduce effects i saw. Added Ceriths, nassarius, and hermits so they cleaned or moved the sand enough i didnt mind it as much. Than one day i had no more diatoms.
Im sure they are in my tank, but held at bay from a mixture of sponges using silica, predation, and other photosynthetic processes of others in tank (corals,macro,etc)

 

[EmdeReef]

Hey guys..

Looking for some guidance please...
I’m extremely envious of everyone and their nice clean sandbed!

My tank has been up and running for a year and half more or less (maybe a touch longer) and I seem to have been having this issue from the get go.
My sand bed gets brown very quickly, not a thick brown slime... just brown, almost like a heavy dusting.. but pretty rapidly.

I siphon regularly, stays clean for about a day. After 2 days or so its brown and ugly.
I don’t have much algae forming on the glass... glass starts to develop some algae and needs cleaning after about 3-4 days ish, which is normal, right?

There is no direct sunlight in the room, so blackout hours are totally black!
I am away at work during the day so my lighting cycle is from 3PM to 9PM... 6 hours total.
I have an ATI Sunpower 6x80 bulb fixture running:
3x Euroquatics blue pop and 1 ATI Blue plus on channel 1 (running for all 6 hrs between 3-9PM).
1x ATI Coral Plus and 1x ATI Purple Plus on channel 2 (running for 2 hrs, between 4-6PM).

I run GFO and have tested the following params using Salifert kits:
Nitrate: between 5 to 10ppm
Nitrite: 0
Phosphate: 0, Undetectable at reactor outlet as well as display.
PH: 7.7 tested at about 8PM.
Alk: 10.7dKH (Hanna)
Calcium: 575ppm (a bit high) (Hanna)
Mag: 1500ppm

Apart from Calcium being abit hight, all params look to be OK, right?

Could any of the above be causing this issue? I don’t believe my lighting or schedule could be causing this. The ATI bulbs have been changed recently, about 2-3 months old now... and I have been having this issue for a long time.

Any advice or guidance would be greatly appreciated!

Are you using RODI water? Checked your DI and filters? Perhaps post a pic to confirm. If it is diatoms, the bloom would likely be fueled by silicates coming from something and usually after that long it is usually water or could be a salt mix. The good news is that apart from looking ugly, they're harmless...I'd stop siphoning, let them run their course and eventually will go away as long as you're not adding more fuel for them.

Your params look good, at that high Alk, I'd let the phosphates go up a bit if you are keeping SPS to prevent potential alk burns...

 

[Tautog]

Sounds like diatoms. A good CUC will help. Jmo, but when I did have them it was due to lack of flow I believe. I had moved my powerheads recently which changed to flow along the bottom. After I switched the flow back, and a few days later everything cleared up. Hope that helps

 

[W@tchm@n]

Thanks for the responses guys..
Appreciate it!

Regarding silicates.
I’m running Rowaphos through a reactor... I’m led to believe this is good at keeping phos and silicates down. Any other recommendations?
I am buying RO as well as salt water from my lfs.. I unfortunately don’t have the space to setup my own stations for RO and mixing.

I have a few hermits in there, but they don’t seem to make a dent in it... also I have 3 snails in there but I don’t know what they are, they hitched a ride, just looked up nassarius and they are not that.

@EmdeReef
When you stay stop siphoning, so you mean permanently? I have read many threads about not cleaning the sandbed.. mine is shallow.. less than 2 inches. I have been siphoning to try to rid that brown look... also, after how long do I know if the not siphoning thing is not working and could potentially be a problem? Would it start turning slimely and is that concern or should I just leave that?

@Tautog
I have 2 Jabao RW8 on either side facing upwards to create surface agitation as well as 2 Jabao SW4 angled slightly downward, although the SW4’s don’t seem to be creating much flow imo.
The tank is 5x2x2.

When you say you changed your flow, did you change them to face down and the you had the issue?

 

[Gareth elliott]

Regarding ro/di mine is a temporary setup. When i need to make water i attach to my bathroom faucet, waste water tube goes in the drain, di output in a bucket. I do it on days i am home. Use home depot food grade buckets with lids. I make 2 or 3 stack them, put them in my closet. Detach unit, also goes in closet.

 

[EmdeReef]

If it is diatoms they won't turn into anything slimy and they're not dangerous, my foxface used to eat them, I'm not sure but I suspect bristleworms also would eat some - the point is that unlike dinos or other stuff it won't cause problems beyond looking bad. Can you get a cheap TDS meter and check the RO water? Rowaphos should remove some as long as it's not exhausted and judging by your PO it's not.

I never siphon my sand, I do stir it a bit every week though. I let the bristleworms do their job. How old is your sand? If newer it may take a while before all the silica is depleted.

 

[W@tchm@n]

Thanks... Sand was put in when the tank was started... So just over a year and a half...
I'll try to get a pic tonight so u guys confirm if it is diatoms

 

[Gareth elliott]

This is probably not the most scientific approach but how i now check flow(least clean up lol)

Mix clear gelatin into a candy mold, let solidify. I then drop the spheres in the tank at different locations and see where they reside. These are my dead spots. Being just amino acids and proteins i just let them dissolve.
I think with your tank size plus wave makers on max you are looking at 13x volume/movement. For a reef i would look closer to 20-40x.

 

[W@tchm@n]

Cool...
Thanks.. Will see if I can test something like that out...
Regarding this issue tho.. It doesn't appear to be in any particular spot.. As in dead spot.. Its pretty much across the length of the tank..

But I have actually been thinking about getting more flow in the tank because I want to add more softies and get a nice swaying effect going...
So was thinking about moving one of the rw8 across.. So have both rw8 on the same side... And then get a rw20 for the opposite end.

 

[W@tchm@n]

Hi guys..
So I took these just now..
Do they look like diatoms as suspected?

Thanks

 

[ThunderGoose]

This looks just like my tank right now (only 13 months old). Following and thinking about the advice posted here.

 

[Gareth elliott]

Are those bubbles forming on top of the algae?
Or just bokah from the camera?

 

[EmdeReef]

Hi guys..
So I took these just now..
Do they look like diatoms as suspected?

Thanks

Yes. The second pic is a bit blurry but doesn’t look like dino.

 

[Gareth elliott]

Also i shouldn’t post when tired meant bokeh lol

Deleted the rest of this for same reason

 

[Robert Scott]

Maybe worth while making your own RO/DI water.

 

[Robert Scott]

Would not trust Local Fish Store.

 

[W@tchm@n]

Also i shouldn’t post when tired meant bokeh lol

Deleted the rest of this for same reason

Lol
They are very tiny bubbles

 

[W@tchm@n]

The bubbles are really small...
And not all over the place.. Not alot if them.. Scattered.

Also forgot to mention.. Seems to to subside at night.. When I have a look in the morning using a torch... The brown seems to have subsided quite abit..
But back to the normal or browner status by the time I get home with the lights on..

 

[brandon429]

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/t...ead-aka-one-against-many.230281/#post-2681445

That’s an absolute fix for your issue. You have a large tank, more work than most, but the outcome biology is plain as day in the pics there. Price of sandbedding in a large tank... that work. One correct sand rinse and your set for another year or two. My tank is twelve years into sparkly-ness

UV filtration after that first catch up rinse, plus preventative bed stirring thereafter stops another take down cleaning (you can see how a hands off sandbed in this tank manifests/invasion)

In my opinion don’t stir your current bed until it’s rendered neutral then stir and siphon as prevention from there on out, solved.