Diatom algae after adding more live sand

[ashleigh234]

I have a 4ft 90gal tank that was running for 12mths, and I have now had it for 2mths.
2 weeks ago we brought either 60lb or 100lb (cant remember what size bag, leaning towards the 100) bag of "Aragalive" live sand, very fine sand. We placed this directly over the top of the crushed coral we had in there before and mixed it up a little bit.
Since adding this in (after 3 days or so) we have had diatom algae on the sand, and a little on the glass that wont go away, parameters are still as they were when we added the sand - ammonia & nitrite = 0, nitrate = 10, ph 8.2 and we have the lights on for a long time throughout the day, about 14hours all up I think, but we didnt have algae problems before.
I am thinking that it is like when you first cycle a tank you get diatom algae then it slowly just dies away on its own?
We have a Tigertail Cucumber who cleans the sand, although he doesnt go very far each day
Do you think it will go away on its own?
Currently we dont have a huge clean up crew, only have about 3 snails (could be more as I am quite often finding new ones popping up that I didnt know were in there

), the cucumber, a rock boring urchin, and a coral banded shrimp.
Any suggestions? I havent done a water change in 2 weeks either since adding the sand, will be doing one this weekend.

 

[ashleigh234]

After typing up the post realised that I also brought a new 54W Blue T5 bulb for my lights as one had been blown for a little while ... much brighter now, thats probably my problem as lights are on too much?
I am off work for most of next week so I will see if I can reduce lighting and see how it goes.
Downside to my lights is they are an all in one unit and without splitting up the wiring etc I cant have them on a timer as the white, blue and moonlights are all on the one powercord, just have individual switches on the unit itself.
I turn the blue and white lights on between 7.30-8am during the week before I go to work, then about 7pm turn them to just the blue lights, then about 9pm turn the moonlights on (sometimes a bit later if I cant stop looking at the tank)

 

[peasofme]

nutrients from the live sand + the new lights = more algae. get 1 large mexican turbo snail per 10 gallons

 

[btldreef]

Adding live sand or rock usually results in a diatom bloom, it should go away on it's own. That being said, most people, myself included, can't wait for it to go away on it's own. Some cerith and nassarius snails will help speed up the process. You can also try GENTLY stirring the top of the sand bed to break up the diatoms. The combo of the two usually works for me.
When you added new sand, you stirred up the old crushed coral with stirred up lots of nutrients for the diatoms to feed on, just keep that in mind while battling the diatoms. I don't think that adding the new light made that much of a difference.
There are chemical methods out there for ridding diatoms, don't use them.

 

[ashleigh234]

Yeah I figured it will go away on its own, so will leave it be for another week or two before i start to pull my hair out over it. then will look at getting snails.
I got home last night to find 1 of my white bulbs blown, so i might just leave that for a couple of days and see if the diatoms go away, it means the lights arent as bright but i still get to keep them on
Have been stirring up the top of the sand bed slightly, every couple of days, i have to control myself to not do it every day

 

[xcali1985]

Ive been told that if you let it be dont even clean it off the glass, that it will go away faster, your tank will look like crap for ~2-3 weeks but you won't be fighting it for months. Only suggest this method if you don't have corals and such.
I actually tried this with a green film algae that I had and one day it was there 2 days later gone. Only thing I would monitor is to make sure it don't cover any of your corals.