Sand turning brown day after cleaning?

[bmkid1997]

Hey all, I’m kind of stumped! I clean my canister filter weekly and always siphon sections of the sand, making it nice and clean. Only for the next day it’s starting to brown again, and my tank isn’t new at all. About a year old. The photo is a day after a siphon, and frankly idk what the cause / fix! My nitrates are 15, phosphate .2, dkh 8.5.

 

[CrossXchaos]

Believe its a diatom bloom.

 

[CrossXchaos]

What causes Diatom bloom? ... During its initial cycling, the tank has an imbalance of compounds like nitrite and ammonia which is what the Diatom algae feed off of. However, that also means that if your tank ever has an imbalance in its nitrogen cycle. This is usually temporary phase and will correct itself as long as you maintain good water quality.

 

[Steve and his Animals]

What Cross said is correct, diatoms are usually the first algae that shows up in new tanks, but he left something out: when you disturb a sand bed/add new sand/new dry rock, you're usually adding a decent amount of silicates to the water, which diatoms use to build their cell walls. Usually, the diatoms get eaten and other algae out compete them over time, so I would just wait.

In my opinion, getting animals to sift sand for you naturally is better than disturbing it with siphons. Hermit crabs, Nassarius snails, conchs, and sand sifting gobies are usually a good idea in some capacity.

 

[reefz]

Get a good CUC. Trochus and florida cerith are my picks for diatoms.

 

[kingjames_dc5]

A Conch will help keep the sand looking nice.

 

[bmkid1997]

thanks all! I have a very small clean up crew currently, and my goby only sand sifts his favorite spot of the tank, keeping that part nice and piled u p! I will definitely stock up on more CuC.

 

[DJF]

+1 conch

 

[homer1475]

Source water?

Diatoms feed on silicates and typically burn out after the silicates in new sand is used up. You typically won't see them in established tanks unless your adding silicates somehow?

 

[bmkid1997]

Source water?

Diatoms feed on silicates and typically burn out after the silicates in new sand is used up. You typically won't see them in established tanks unless your adding silicates somehow?

I use 0 TDS from from my RODI. Thats why im not sure why im experiencing this; i havent added any new sand at all. I do siphon sections with water change, that is all.

 

[CrossXchaos]

I use 0 TDS from from my RODI. Thats why im not sure why im experiencing this; i havent added any new sand at all. I do siphon sections with water change, that is all.

Steve hit it on the head.. I believe you can correct this by not disturbing the bottom layers of the sand which in turn would release silicates from sand that hasn't been exposed however you can continue to siphon it and eventually the silicate will be completely eradicated from the sand. Siphoning deep sand bed is not recommended so if it's over 3" I wouldn't touch it imo.

 

[Glenner’sreef]

Hey a little science test for you here. Are the Diatoms noticeable say an hour before the lights go on? If not you may also want to adjust down how long your lights are on. Problems that occur are often not single fixes. Nature provides an arsenal that work together. Lighting, cuc, flow, parameters, temp. etc. etc. We should do the same. Good luck.

 

[Midrats]

Zero TDS doesn't necessarily mean your water still doesn't have silicates. An ICP test through ATI revealed that mine does.

 

[Timfish]

Even afgter a system matures there's going to be variations or cycles in the microbial processes. SOmetimes the changes could be indicative of a disruption in the feeding or foodwebs in a system. These disruptions can occur weeks or maybe months before the nuisance alge it eventually causes becomes noticable. In addition to the above suggestions I sometimes siphon off the top layer, soak in H2O2 for a day or so, rinse well in tab water, let it sit for a day or more to dry thuroghly then return to the tank. This will kill the algae bound to the sand that's not killed with just a garvel vacume. I found this paper pretty intersting as it showed huge variations in microbial stuff in the water with a system carefully controlled by a team of scientists and technicians.

https://journals.asm.org/doi/pdf/10.1128/AEM.00179-18