Brown sand

[cookie]

My tank is over six month old (75 gallons) and my sand turns brown and will not stay white. I am using RODI and everyday when I top off, there is more brown algae on my sand after each top off. I have only been using RODI for a week. Do I maybe have too much sand or is this a normal part in the cycle. I have a beautiful tank with great water quality and salinity but have this terrible brown algae on my sand and I want to get rid of it!! Any suggestions?

 

[tri_pod_rod]

get a sand sifting starfish

 

[Myteemouse]

Do you test for phosphates in your tank

 

[tike]

What type of clean up crew do you have?

 

[Krish]

Sounds like diatoms which is a part of the cycling process. I'd look into testing your tank water as the old water may not have been suitable for aquarium use thus fueling the "algae" to grow and also, test your new water (ro/di) to make sure it doesn't contain any food for the "algae" once again. Worse thing you can do is add water to the tank that causes more harm than good so IMO, I'd test your water to see where you are at.

Just a thought...You can siphon up what you can when doing a water change, but just keep in mind, if there is available food source in the tank for the alge to grow, then it will continue to come back. Also, adding in critters "hide" the problem won't solve too much either. Best bet IMo is to get to the route of the problem. Good luck and if you have any pictures, post them so we can see exactly what you are dealing with

 

[cookie]

Do you test for phosphates in your tank

No I have not done that...can you educate me on how to go about doing that?

 

[cookie]

What type of clean up crew do you have?

I have some snails that line under the sand...about six of them. I have a handful of other snails as well but I dont know what kind they all are. I have an emerald crab as well. A cleaner shrimp and a fire shrimp (dont know if they count). Probably a bit on the weak side? I also have a sand sifting goby.

 

[cookie]

Sounds like diatoms which is a part of the cycling process. I'd look into testing your tank water as the old water may not have been suitable for aquarium use thus fueling the "algae" to grow and also, test your new water (ro/di) to make sure it doesn't contain any food for the "algae" once again. Worse thing you can do is add water to the tank that causes more harm than good so IMO, I'd test your water to see where you are at.

Just a thought...You can siphon up what you can when doing a water change, but just keep in mind, if there is available food source in the tank for the alge to grow, then it will continue to come back. Also, adding in critters "hide" the problem won't solve too much either. Best bet IMo is to get to the route of the problem. Good luck and if you have any pictures, post them so we can see exactly what you are dealing with

Here are some pictures....


How do I test my RODI water and what am I looking for? Thanks!

 

[tdgates10]

Looks like diatoms to me. Get yourself a TDS meter, cost around $25, to test the water going into your RO/DI unit, which would be your tap water, and then test the water going out. The out water should read 0 TDS or total dissolved solids. Might take a while to cure it, but as long as it's not fueling the algae, it will only get better.

 

[cookie]

Looks like diatoms to me. Get yourself a TDS meter, cost around $25, to test the water going into your RO/DI unit, which would be your tap water, and then test the water going out. The out water should read 0 TDS or total dissolved solids. Might take a while to cure it, but as long as it's not fueling the algae, it will only get better.

If the reading is not zero...what is the next suggestion?

 

[tdgates10]

Find the fuel for the bloom. Check to see if you have high nitrates. You can test for phosphates but i'm not a real big fan of that cuz if you have algae in the tank, you have phosphates...but it wouldn't hurt to check.

My bet would be on the TDS being too high though.

 

[saltydog99202]

Change the rodi filters and TDS should read 0 ppm