Keeping the sand clean?

[muckworm]

I have a 46g bowfront tank with 50lbs of LR and 35lbs of LS... All of my parameters are perfect and I do water changes regularly. For some reason I constantly have a very thin layer of this brownish/red algea on the sand, and on some of the rocks. It only temporarily goes away when I do water changes and stir up the sand... it usually returns within 45 minutes though. I have 2 clowns and a firefish (not the heaviest bioload). I buy my water (RO/DI) from the LFS and there are no phosphates or silicate. Any idea what this is and how I can get rid of it???

 

[jacksonpt]

is it kind of a rust color? if so, I have the same thing - diatoms... nothing I do seems to help (water changes, etc.). I've heard that fighting conches will help with algae on the sand, but I have yet to try them. How deep is your sand? 35lbs shouldn't make it very deep at all? Do you have southdown under the LS? If it is a DSB, I would suggest stirring up the sand as rarely as possible. Live with the diatoms as long as you can before you clean it. Part of a good, functional DSB is having it sit pretty much undisturbed.

 

[slick]

Go get some (or more) crabs or snails to eat that stuff off your sand. I had the same problem and added 100 dwarf zebra hermits to my tank. No more problems for me.

 

[muckworm]

ya, I don't intentionally stir the sand, it just happens when I scrape the glass.

 

[maryc137]

Do you have plenty of water circulation in the tank, down by the sand? I had that on my sand until I redid where the water circulates, and my sand is nice and white now.

 

[timsedwards]

All i can say is from what people have told me, get a proper clean up crew! They will sort it out for you! Quite entertaining as well!

 

[nerdy]

Diamond back goby or slider goby will take care of the sand. They are sand sifters.