algae outbreak on live sand

brylee

brylee

New Member
hey all what's up? it's been a while since i have been on this site. I am having a problem with my tank and am in need of some good advice. i set up my tank in july. 65gal. w/ a backpack skimmer. approx. 35lbs in live rock. the tank is clear (looks good) with the exception of the live sand. The sand is having a serious outbreak of very dark green algae. the skimmer is working fine. there are 3 snails, 8 crabs, and a couple of tangs in there right now. I lost a tang last week, but not sure why. Everything seems healthy and the levels are all in check. I really would like to get rid of that green algae. i havent put any corals in yet, due to trying get everything just right. i was getting ready to put a few corals in to get a feel for it, but now i have this green algae outbreak on the sand. any advice would be extremely appreciated. thanx
 
elcid

elcid

Member
I would recommend to decrease the amount of light to 8 hours , also check your phosphates levels. I was having the same problem, I ended up buying 4 turbos and they did a pretty good. .
 
fishfood

fishfood

Member
I'm having the same exact problem and it has lasted for almost 2 months now. The tank is a 55 tub with a prizim skimmer, built in overflow that goes to a 15gal fuge. Both tank and fuge have 3-4 inches of sand. Tank has about 65lbs of lr. I'm running a vho with 3 bulbs and a 175w mh. I thought i had phosphate and silicate problem so got new test kits. The RO water was perfect and so was the tank water. I thought it was that the bulbs were old and got new bulbs. 3 weeks later and nothing. It can't be that i'm overfeeding because i only feed about 2 times a week. I had a rather large clean up crew but the six line wrasse ate all of my crabs. Just last week about half of my turbo snails just dropped dead. I'm thinking its the sand. I used regular play sand. I don't know how to test that though. I've sucked up all the green algae with a turkey baster about 3 times and have done major water changes but it still comes back. I also got about 50 Cerith snails for free from the lfs. I also have a cuke that is about 7 inches long 2 emerals and a conch. I have tested 0 for trates, trites and amonia for probably 7 or 8 months now. Calcium is at 500+, ph is at 8.1-8.3 and alk was somewhere between 7.5 and 9. It is an annoyance but I have great growth on all my coral and the slime algae, so far, only grows on the sand. If/when you do something that makes it go away let me know. I'll do the same. I've about given up though.
 
kevin j

kevin j

Member
I have sort of the same problem and am slowly getting rid of it.:)
I have red slime instead of the green and here were some of my problems 1st I didnt have enough current in the tank. I had two maxi-jets one was 600 the other 900 so I bought a 1200 and really got things moving! Next I had an emperor 400 very bad the bio-wheels and floss in the filter are breeding grounds for algae!:( And last but not least the r/o water I was buying wasnt the best :mad: after they told me it was. So now after making those changes my tank is coming around :D and this is just after one week! So hope this helps a little. Oh yeah I have a 75 gallon.
 
fishfood

fishfood

Member
I did put another powerhead in and now have 3 mj 1200's Plus the return which i don't remember what it was but i have a lot of current. I just hope it clears up soon.
 
clarkiiboi

clarkiiboi

Active Member
I have the exact same problem and it seems FishFood covered just about anything that can be done, I even tried a lawnmower blenny. I have a question for you FishFood---you said you went and got a new phospate test kit, did that show zero, because I was thinking that is what the problem is in my tank. If its zero, then I'm out on fixing it too. Oh and I used LS, no playsand, and still have the problem.
 
fishfood

fishfood

Member
Clarkii - I have a bicolor, not as big of an appetite for algae and the pure lawnmower but still picks at the stuff. I've been showing 0 for phosphate with the new test kit. I was told on here that the green slime is a product of trates or trites and not phosphate. Mine was bubbling up so bad a few weeks back that the layer of algae actually started to float up. I'm assuming that is the conversion of the trates and trites but have no clue where its coming from considering that i can't even find it with my tests. Not in my ro, fresh salt mix or the tank.
 
clarkiiboi

clarkiiboi

Active Member
Well, I dont know what to do either, I figured mine was phosphates or nitrates, both of mine are showing, but yours isnt so that leaves us all to still ask "what else can be done?".
Oh, and I dont think it was mentioned about lights on time, but from my point that seems to not be a factor, I started to only leave them on 7 hours a day and nothing, even when I syphoned it out.
 
fishfood

fishfood

Member
Well i have noticed that mine kind of goes away at night and comes back when the lights are on. It seems to come out in full force when the MH is on though and i'm still increasing the amount of time i leave that on because it is a new bulb. I think i'm up to about 5 hrs with the mh and probably 10 with the vho's
One other thing.. since i siphoned out my tank the last time only half of the tank is growing the algae back?? :confused:
 
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