Struggling with this algae, help?

[JonoB]

I'm at work *shhh don't tell anyone* so I'll have to double check some of the parameter info for you when I get home...

However, I've been struggling with this for about two months now. I assumed it was some green cyano or something, but maybe not? I siphon it out with my weekly water changes but it always comes back. It's mostly just on the sand bed. Any insight?

Parameters off the top of my head from when I checked 2 days ago:

Temp 78
Salinity 1.026
Alk 9.3
Calcium 440
Phos .04
Nitrate - Honestly I don't know, I use a Salifert test and i can't read it for crap. It's somewhere right above 0 lol

Also, I use RODI and monitor the TDS, and change out filters.

 

[ndrwater]

Looks like regular Diatoms. How old is the tank?

 

[brandon429]

uv will fix that since its topical and not deep seated. other param tinkerings can suppress it too but thats time dependent. certain fact that a full sand cleaning w help, but thats big work so you'll have to decide.

the sand pull has neat options. you can remove sand all at once by draining off your top water and reusing it (saves big remake) after the tank is reset back without sand, or with cleaned sand. drain and put it back...

catching fish and shrimp and animals on way down siphon for holding outside tank, leaving only rocks and sand then you lift out rocks and take all the sand out. empty. put rocks back, fill up tank. its disassembly work, bc we're doing it right but its a skip cycle reassemble and its cloudless. clear water.

you can then make sure the tank itself stays clear of the offender, siphoning out any remaining pockets guiding it all back to clean.

at the end, burn the sand clean and put it back (no invader)

thats one way to clean it out right, and fix future invasions. Other topical actions you do while effective on target aren't removing that filth in the sandbed that feeds another invasion in 2021.

w that sandbed pulled, you can repull it again next time or clean it better since rocks will be sitting on the bottom this time.

people aren't used to reading that much work due for such a small invasion agreed, it'll go away eventually if you dont.

but i work in the sand rinse thread- 23 pages of purely wrecked tanks in challenge, dirty sandbeds untouched. they have to be touched sometimes...so in the end what i wrote above is only preemptive work there's four years of comparisons to what total hands off sand will bring. you can change course now if you want and make a no storage sb

are there wrasses that jet into the sand currently and kick it up at nite

 

[JonoB]

Looks like regular Diatoms. How old is the tank?

It's definitely more of a "slime" then the dusty diatoms I am familiar with. The tank has been up since Feb, but the rock and everything was transferred from a year old tank and all stayed wet and all that.

 

[Bret Brinkmann]

I only ever heard of diatoms being tan or brown if they got thick. I have a 4" deep sand bed in my DT and fuge. I've never cleaned sand in the 4 years I've had it going. My various types of cerith snails clean it everyday though. Not only do they eat green algae but diatoms and cyanobacteria too. They dig in the sand, on top of the sand, the glass, and all over the rocks. I recommend cerith snails for this algae.

 

[Idoc]

Looks like green cyano to me