bright green stuff?? growing in my sand bed

[solly]

OK, I'm assuming this has got to be algae. I just don't know how upset I should be. The tank is in front of a window and this stuff is only growing on the sides where the sun hits it. It's really bright -like neon green. Not on the surface of the sand, but below the surface along the side of the glass. By the way, I didn't put the tank in front of the window, my daughter went off to college and left me this tank to take care of. I'm not supposed to disturb the sand bed and clean it, right?

 

[fangelillo01]

I would by far say i'm NOOO expert but wait for FLOWER or SPANKO to give you a better answer they seem to be some of the best.There are others obviously but they are the ones who have helped me.Anyway I would keep an eye on it it sounds like an algae perhaps hair algae but dont take my word on it i'm comin from freshwater tanks

 

[blenny]

In my opinion I would say yes you can clean the sand bed ,and see what you can do with the window to eliminate the sunlight , check you aquarium parameters and make sure you don’t have a high level of phosphates.

 

[fretfreak13]

Any chance you could get a picture? Hair algea isn't neon green, and I havn't seen it grow under the sand before (I have my fair share of experience with that particular part lol). How long has the sand gone undisturbed and how old is this tank? Are there any critters in the tank that sift sand (ie. starfish, goby, or narci snails)? Disturbing the sand bed deeply could mess up the nitrogen bubbles that occur beneath it, or something like that. Not sure how to explain it well, but if it's close to the top (less than a half inch) you should be fine to stir it a bit. I still suggest a picture though. =P

 

[ajroc31]

You are ok with gently scraping that off as far as I am concerned. The toxic gases, not sure which, are in the area below the algea. But you must be careful, not to disturbed the area below it. There are some snails that eat that get in there and eat the algea.

 

[blenny]

Yes i have three of those called Burrowing Conch Snails. They do a good job keeping the sand turned, but i would not recomend them to a substrate that has alot of big chuncks, Mine are in a tank with fine sand substrate. kinda cool when the lights on and they move under the san its like a submarine with the look out up moving under the sand.

 

[spanko]

Get a flat scrapper or you can use a credit card or something similar. Go along the glass above the sand layer then down into it along the glass. I am going to guess this is just some coralline algae growth. Can be a real pain to get off if you don't keep up with it, but the hard plastic should do a good job for you. This will not disturb the sand bed too much if you are careful to keep the plastic against the glass.

 

[solly]

This is what is looks like....

 

[solly]

I will try that, thanks. I thought I was testing for everything, but don't have a phosphate test. I keep learning! I do use RO DI water, so if I'm thinking right, I shouldn't have phosphates, right?

 

[solly]

I have put at least 20-30 narci snails and 5-6 cleaner clams, although when I feed lately, I don't notice many narci's coming to the surface and a couple of the clams have died since I initially stocked so I probably need to restock on sand sifting creatures....I completely restarted the tank with new sand a few months ago, but kept same live rock so not a completely new setup. When my daughter initially got the tank, they had her set it up with an undergravel filter and when she went off to college and I took over and got interested and found out that things had changed since she was sold that set up.

 

[blenny]

Originally Posted by solly
http:///forum/post/3264809
I will try that, thanks. I thought I was testing for everything, but don't have a phosphate test. I keep learning! I do use RO DI water, so if I'm thinking right, I shouldn't have phosphates, right?
Not necessarily, I had a friend getting R/O water from a place and Turned out he said to me one day as we were talking about tank’s he was battling a algae problem. I lent him my Reef test kit and had check for Phosphates in his tank, They read 0.5, and he checked the water in the bottle of the stuff he had gotten from this store and it was reading .025 for phosphates. I’m not saying you have this problem .but it might give you a place to start at least you tested for it, But Spanko should be back bye with a better answer for you.
Check you date on your test kit or get a reef test kit that include most of the important testing elements.

 

[spanko]

do you make your own RO|DI? Are you testing to TDS, total dissolved solids? Is this the side where the natural light hits the tank? Do you still have the undergravel filter?
This looks to me like a combination of the natural light and pent up nutrients in the sand. I would still do the credit card trick and keep up on that. I may have some different things to try once you answer that myriad of questions I just threw at you. Sorry!

 

[solly]

Yes, I have my own RO/DI system and no, I am not testing for TDS, didn't know about that one either! Yes this stuff is only growing on the sides where the natural light is coming in the window. I totally did away with the undergraval filter and now just have sand bed and HOB filtration and protein skimmer with weekly water changes. My water paramaters are all really good with the only exception being nitrates stay about 20, but thats really not all that bad, is it? It's a FOWLR tank.

 

[blenny]

20 is kind of high, I would clean your filters ect, and do a good water change to try to get that reading down. In my opinion the high nitrates could be fueling your problem.

 

[spanko]

I don't believe that the nitrates are the total cause here. 20ppm is not a high reading for a FOWLR system. Again, I think this is a combination of the pent up nutrients in the sand bed coupled with the natural sunlight that is hitting that side of the tank.