Growth on sand?

[missile150]

I have had a reddish/brown film growing on my sandbed for some time now. I keep removing it, and it keeps coming back. It is covering about 70percent of the sand. I think it is some type of waste from the bacteria in the sand, but I am not sure. I think that some more sand sifting organisms would help. I had about 200 sand sifting snails in there, but a lot are not around any more. Could anyone tell me what other type of organisms I could put in it (sand sifting stars, cucumbers, snails, etc)?
The tank is a 210 fowlr. There is about 100lbs of live rock and 70lbs of base rock, 200lbs of sand, all readings are at zero (nitrate, nitrite, ammonia, phosphate, silicate, etc). I have a zebra tang, coral beauty, 3 sissortail gobies, 4 blue/green chromis and a gold bar maroon clownfish. I have been slowly adding fish over the last 8 or 9 months that the tank has been set up, it is just hard for me to decide what to put in it.
Thanks for any insite on this problem.

 

[rbaldino]

Sounds like diatoms or red slime cyanobacteria. Do a google search for both.

 

[saltn00b]

sounds to me like a solid case of Cyano. i am betting you dont have a lot of turnover, as in GPH's with powerheads, main pumps , skimmers, etc? you want at least 10X your tank volume to avoid cyano. so this means you should have at the very least, 2010 GPH flowin through that beast. in the mean time, cut down feedings, and shorten the light cycle (how long is it , anyway?)

 

[missile150]

I am using a pump that is turning over the water at around 1200gph, 2 maxijet 1200's, and two small nano pumps doing around 50gph. I will check for the cyano online to see fixes for it. And the skimmer is rated for a 300gal tank, but I am not sure of the pump size on it.
As for the lights, they start to come on at about 1:30pm, with two actinics first, then two daylights a half hour later and then two more 45minutes later. Then they all go off in the reverse order and are totally out by about 10:30pm.

 

[rbaldino]

Chemiclean will work on the red slime. Once it's in there, that's about the only way to get rid of it. I had 20x flow in my tank, still had the problem. Chemiclean took care of it.

 

[missile150]

Does that chemical have any effect on the biological filter, inhabitants, etc., that I should worry about? Could you give some advice on some better sand sifting organisms? Thanks.