Tank uglies or a problem?

[Geebs19]

Hey all,

Been battling whatever this is on my sand since I moved the tank into a new home about 2 months ago. Before that I had a small issue with this but not as bad as this. It’s clumping to the sand and the flow doesn’t touch it.

Phosphates .083
Nitrate appear to be 0 maybe a slight color in the vial but not like on the red sea chart.
I use rodi that’s 0, weekly 10% water changes.

 

[Geebs19]

#reefsquad

 

[Big G]

Tank uglies. Consider a bit higher w/c ratio. Siphon off the rocks. Vacuum the sand. How often are you changing filter socks? Do you have a cleanup crew going in the tank to help?

 

[Flippers4pups]

Cyanobacteria what it looks to me. Typical new tank nastiness.

Raising your N03 will help. Vacuum out all you can at next water change.

Are you carbon dosing?

 

[DharkaronReef]

It's cyanobacteria red slime algae. Your phosphates are a bit high. Are you running a carbon or gfo reactor? Try lowering your phosphates. For now, you can siphon the red slime out of your sand bed and aim a powerhead at the lower part of your tank.

 

[Geebs19]

I just got had a jump in phosphates in the last 2 days. I added an extra feeding, it was at .04-.05 need to roll back how many pellets are going into the tank each feeding with the added feeding time.

The stuff on the sand won’t come off unless I stir it. I change filter sock every 2-4 days. No carbon running. Skimmer running 24/7. Have an array of snails and small reef hermits.

 

[Big G]

The stuff on the sand won’t come off unless I stir it.

I siphon that top layer of the "dirty" sand out into a 5 gal bucket. Clean, rinse, rinse, rinse the sand with RODI and then return to tank.