Question for NM Reef..

[mr. tuna]

Hey!
How do you keep your sand so white? I have had a sand swifting goby, so my sand has been extremely white, but i got rid of him because he eats all my pods in my sand and pours sand all over my clams. So now that i dont have him, my sand has greenish/yellow algea growing on it, and it doesnt look so pleasing. Do you reccomend any good snails, or such which would do the job? And do you exchange some sand with other Reef keepers?
Thanks,
__Tuna

 

[promisetbg]

Hi Tuna...Long time...hope you are well.

 

[mr. tuna]

Hey carole!
long time..:yes: Glad to hear from you.
I am having a bit of trouble with algea. I have green algea building up on my sand, and it is starting to look ugly, because i have nothing cleaning/ shifting the sand. Do you have any suggestions?
Thank you.

 

[promisetbg]

Is it slimy?You might want to try a spotted cucumber{atlantic}..and a fighting conch.Steer clear of sand sifting stars..they deplete beneficial organisms.Beef up your clean-up crew..in general.Cerith snails,nassarius snails,strombus maculatus{sp} or stomatellas are great if you can find them.We have to do that periodically.Do a few hefty water changes..and back off on feeding.Run a phosphate test.
TTYL

 

[mr. tuna]

Thanks.
Yes, it is a slimey green algea.

 

[promisetbg]

Cyanobacteria..do a search,there are some great threads on the subject.most tanks have a little,the thing is to have other algaes outcompete it.Backing off on feeding and a refugium was how I eliminated mine.I grow macro algae,and xenia in my fuge,then remove it for nutrient export,and let it grow back.Then repeat the process.Cyano usually grows in a low flow area,hair algae grows in high flow areas.They thrive on phosphate and nitrate.Sometimes you can even get a false reading of 0 on a test kit,as the algae and bacteria is consuming it.Sometimes backing off on your lighting schedule will make the cyano decrease..or manually removing it by syphoning..before a water change.But,the reason it is there to begin with,must be addressed.Try one cure at a time,until you figure out the cause.Most likely overfeeding,and lack of water changes.Beef up your clean-up crew too,but don't depend on them for the cure.

 

[jimmy234]

u may want to try a protein skimmer if u have the room. lettuce nudibranchs helped my algae problem

 

[mr. tuna]

Thanks!
I have a protein skimmer, and i do a 10% waterchange every week, and sometimes every other week. But i will try to increase that to every week. And would it help if i take it off?
maby net it all out?
__Tuna

 

[mr. tuna]

And by the way,
are nassarius snails coraline eaters? Because i wouldnt want my coraline getting all eaten up, just my cyano.

 

[nm reef]

Say what....huh....somebody speakin' to me.....
Sorry....due to a crisis in my life I've been away for a while and missed this post.
I suppose my sand stays white due to circulation and diversity. I keep numerous crabs/snails/worms/pods and assorted other stuff. My refugium is fairly large and I believe it helps too....no secret really.

 

[mr. tuna]

Thanks.
I just ordered 15 nassarius snails for my 92, and i have a few turbo snails, aswell as a lettuce nudi... So hopefully that would do the job.

 

[mr. tuna]

Well.. My Nassarius snails and my slug are doing their job, however, i also ordered 3 Fighting conchs. I removed most of the cyanobacteria myself, because there was like this ''carpet'' of it, and it was too thick. I just checked my phosphates and i have 0.1.. and thats very low, but that cant be correct.. because i also have this algea on my rock.it is this bubble-sheet algea.. it covers most of the rocks! I am doing 2 water changes a week. ( 8 gallons a water change) ( 16 a week). Any other suggestions?
Thanks.
__Tuna

 

[kogle]

Hey Tuna. How about your photo period or age of your bulbs? I had this problem develop after my bulbs got some age on them. (I was also leaving them on too long!)

 

[mr. tuna]

KOgle,
I have my MH bulb, which i replaced about...5-6 months ago.
and my pc bulbs.. i replaced about 3 months ago.
My lighting period is..
10:30- pc goes on
1:00- MH goes on
7:00- MH goes off
9:45- pc goes off
i have a second MH bulb which i also installed so i have 500 watts of MH in total, but i am only running one for the moment, because of the algea problems i have.
Thanks.