HELP! Algea and O2 problems

lionfish99

lionfish99

Member
Ok I need help. My tank currently is about 6 months old. already cycled for about 1.5 to 2 months. I added in my anemone and my feather duster about 2 weeks ago, and last wednesday I added snails, hermits, alittle bit of macro algea, and 2 pepermint shrimp. in the las couple of days my sand has been turning a brown color, as well as most rocks! also bubbles are comeing from the sand. If you move some sand alot bubbles go up I don't know what could be going on fish were suppose to be tomarrow but I'm delaying that now please help!
 
sly

sly

Active Member
I have had the same problem with my tank. I recently added an anemone and 4 small damsels. I then had a brown algae bloom that covered almost everything. I have not found anything that will remove it except time. I keep my rocks clean and my substrate mixed up to break apart the algae and then I use a net to scoop up large peices and then I rinse out my filter once I think it has captured most of it. It usually takes a few weeks for the diatoms to die down.
I'm not sure exactly what causes it yet. My ammonia, nitrates and nitrites are all 0ppm and the temp, alk and salinity are unchanged. I'm not sure if its just because the tank is adjusting to the increased bio-load or if it was something that was in the water that the anemone came in. Anemones can poison the water when they become stressed and it could be that the anemone released some toxins in the water during shipping and now these toxins are feeding the diatoms... Just a guess, though. I don't know for sure. It's taken about a month but my tank is returning to normal. I still have brown crap on the rocks but it is slowly dieing out... Maybe it just takes time... (and a water change)
 
380reef

380reef

Member
I thought sturring up sand was bad???
Does it not cause a nitrate spike??? I would love to be able to sturr my sand clean but is it healthy???
 
sly

sly

Active Member
If you have a deep sand bed then you should just lightly vacuum the top to remove any junk. Don't stir it or you could have problems. I don't think that the diatoms produce nitrate specifically (at least they don't in my tank, my nitrate is 0ppm). If anything they are good in that they are removing whatever is in the water. Usually they will consume whatever is feeding them and then they will die off.
I don't know of a fast way to get rid of them... maybe someone else does.
 
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