Brwon Sand! Algae???

adamc1303

adamc1303

Active Member
My sand keeps getting brown, it seems like it algae because I know it not detris from wastes. I have a 90 gallon reef tank all water parameters are good. My lighting is 260W so I doubt it's the lights and I always use RODI water. Any help will be much appreciated.
Thanks Adam
 
gatorwpb

gatorwpb

Active Member
Brown sand is likely Diatoms, not algea.
How old is the tank? Diatoms go away with time if the tank is new.
Maybe get some sand sifters if you dont have a cleanup crew.
 
gtiguy

gtiguy

Member
It comes and goes...gets very annoying and i have figured that it comes from low wattage lighting ( i run pc & t5 ) ....also more flow helps to leave the sand clean so you might want to try that...sand sifters will only do so much, i have sand sifter snails and starfish and doesnt do much bc the bloom is on the surface and the dig below....only thing that did anything was the 4 spot gobies aka four wheel drive gobies but they are hard to come by bc if you have fish you need to get decent sized ones or they dont come out much ....
 
adamc1303

adamc1303

Active Member
I added 3 power heads to my tank and it didn't help, maybe it is the low wattage lighting. Anyone else.
 
bonebrake

bonebrake

Active Member
It is probably because your tank is relatively new. Brown algae normally goes away within the first two or three months.
:joy:
 
adamc1303

adamc1303

Active Member
My tank is up for 9 months since the last time I moved, and even then I moved about 60LB of water so it barley went through a cycle more like a big water change. Before that it was up for a year.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top