moving from a sand bed to c.c.

aileena

aileena

Member
I am honestly thinking about moving back to crushed coral for my reef tank...
ever since I got a DSB I have had tons of algae problems. Although it is under control somewhat right now, it has been only with great time and expense...A UV light and everyday cleaning the glass and rocks...
I can say that when I had c.c. I never had such an enormous algae problem...not to mention the fact that the sand bed is constantly brown!!! it looks hideous...i have a clean up crew which consists of...
10 scarlets
2 cleaner shrimp, 2 peppermint
6 cerith
2 mexican turbos
3 banded trochus
1 brittle star...
I have a YT and a maroon clown...with numerous corals...and an anemone...
now that the algae problem is somewhat managable the sand is always brown and disgusting...the tank has been up since July and its like 3 months later and still brown sand....
the skimmer is a remora, the lights are vho's and yes the bulbs are only 3 months old, there is no ammonia or nitrite. and the nitrate is low like 5 ppm...the kh is between 10-12 and ph is like 8.5 the calcium is 400.
I used old castle sand which supposedly was the same as southdown...I still am pretty sure that it is...
any suggestions before i decide to tear into this tank and start again with c.c.?
 
aileena

aileena

Member
3 months...for some reason beyond me the sand is like GREY in a few spots...what does it mean when the sand is grey?
 
aarone

aarone

Active Member
my guess would be lots of organic waste build up. When i took down one of my tanks i hit a grey spot and it started smelling bad.
 
clarkiiboi

clarkiiboi

Active Member
Basically its still a "new tank", and this will happen and pass soon (IMO, the first 6 months are a b**ch). You may want to add more to your clean up crew for the sand bed. Also, what do you have for circulation, besides the skimmer? You could have some dead spots. What type of water are you using? And were you able to seed the new sandbed? You could of used some of the cc in netting, if not that a scoop of a friends sand bed or the crud from the bottom of the lfs curing tank. How deep is the sand bed? Dont give up on it---one day it will all be worth the hassle. :)
 
aileena

aileena

Member
I have a ton of current...in a 60g I have two maxi 900's pointing at one another. A maxi1200 pointing toward the center of the tank and a rio 800 pointing toward the center of the tank on the other side....
I never seeded the bed with anything but LR...
As far as water I use the RO water or Distillied water from the grocery store...
What things can I add to the sand bed to clean it up? more ceriths? nassarius?
 
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