middle of water change need help fast

[coral boy]

i am doing a water change and was thinking about some of you guys saying not to vacuum the sand bed but it looks like i have hair algae growing in it but not sure if it is I've heard some people say things grow in the sand bed if it's not hair algae what could it be and should i vacuum the sand bed thanks for any help you can give me

 

[brian01]

If its not fish only you should just leave it alone. Let the snails eat it.

 

[nm reef]

I've never delt with hair algae but I did have a bit of cyano on my sand bed....I gently lifted it with one hand while I held the vac close enough to sweep it away as it released from the sand. I did this twice and never had a problem with it returning. But I would not directly vac the sand....maybe pull it away and vac it out but do not cvac the sand like say crushed coral .... its my understanding that the sand bed is best left alone and not disturbed.

 

[coral boy]

Thanks guys thats what i will do

 

[ed r]

Is yours a DSB of fine grained sand? Do you have an established critter population in it? If this is the case, the less you mess with the bed, the better for it. If you do have algae that needs to be removed, carefully raking it off with your fingers should allow the critters to escape. The sand and algae can be tossed into a bucket where you can rinse the algae off with freshwater and return the now dead sand to the tank. As long as you do not remove large amounts of sand, you should be fine. Good luck.

 

[coral boy]

NM how can you tell between the too

 

[demosthenes]

Not NM, but I know how to tell between the two. Cyanobacteria is a more purple, and grows in a mat-like form, over everything, while hair algae grows in stalks almost.