How can I keep my sand clean?

[floppyfish]

I have 12 blue legs and 4 turbos in my 20g and my top sand is getting pretty nasty(algae). I thought the blue legs would do the trick but there not. Any suggestions? Starfish, different crabs, snails?

Thanks Matt

I've been looking at members tanks and all they're sand looks great. I don't know why mine doesn't.

[crollison]

What color is the alge? I know if it is grey it is cyno alge. Queen conchs are supposed to do great at cleaning that stuff up.

[jdiver]

How long has your tank been set up? You would benefit from having more variety of snails (Astrea, Margarita, Trochus, etc.).

[floppyfish]

Nahh, its a greenish color almost brown even when it gets thick, but mostly green

[floppyfish]

Jdiver- its been up a month now. I think I should cut down to 2 turbos. They sh*t all over! Those other snails eat off of the substrate? I know the turbos barely go on it.

[Fishiebusiness]

Astreas ate all the crud off my sand, try a few of those.

[floppyfish]

Fishie- How many? I have a 20g, the problem isn't way outa hand but still an eye sore

[Fishiebusiness]

I would add 6 if you're removing 2 turbos, 3 or 4 if you keep the turbos.

[jdiver]

Be careful with Astreas though, since if they fall onto their backs they can't right themselves and will die. My scarlet reef hermit does a good job of eating things from the sand, so you might want to try adding a couple of them as well as some more varied snails.

[floppyfish]

Which ones aren't reef safe? I don't know what my LFS has and I don't want to buy anything that'll attack my corals. Or are they all pretty much reef safe?

[Sahin]

My blue legged hermits get down on the sand usually and work hard. The Astreas sometimes come down to the sand as well. I also have other snails as well--which although hitched on LR add variety.

 

The thing is, you might try and fight the algae itself, ie find out what contributing to the algae-eg Nitrates? Phosphates? etc and tackle that as well.

 

Increase water circulation around the area where the algae seems to thrive.

 

You'll need to do all these things in combination to fight off the algae.

 

Good luck.

[Toyfreek]

I agree with sahin,

Get rid of the nutrients and the sand will clean itself up.

adding more Bio-load is probably not what you want to do right now, better to deal with the problem not the symtoms of said problem.

HTH,

Toy

[anthony812]

use the old traditional chinese method..take a chop stick and stir the sand alittle..that always works..hahahha..or serpent stars and Bristtle stars does good jobd shifting the sand also..you may habe low current or No current in your sand area where the algae built up..try to have more water movements in those areas where the algae is less likely to stick to the sandbed. but again, your tank is new, you have to be patient, try to use only RODI water to mix your salt or as topoffs..

[floppyfish]

Yeah, I think I'll go with more water changes with the RO/DI SW. I was doing a 6-7g change every Sun. but may not be enough untill my biological load get compensated for. So I did another 6g change yesterday. Twice a week should help, better anyway! I think I did throw a little too much in at first for a new tank. But it never cycled, I only see nitrates. It was <10 before, but when I tested for them last night befroe I did the water change it was around 20. Testing again right now. Would that make a big difference as far as algae growth?

[printerdown01]

I too agree with sahin: try to choke the algae off at the source, and increase your water flow. IMO you are preforming to drastic of water changes... Try going between 2-4 gallons per week. This will keep the system more stable. This is probably why you havn't noticed a cycle! I prefer to have a biologically diverse clean up crew (especially when it comes to my snails). Each species is better at eating something, than are the others. However, turbos are INCREADIBLE! These guys seem to eat just about anything! They are normally considered too large for nanos, but probably won't bother anything in your 20! Another thing you might want to try is getting some snails that will eat ditritus (the stuff that is probably sitting on your sand and feeding your algae). These include: Nass. and bumblebee snails.

*a word of caution on the bumblebees, marine biologists don't know exactly what they eat. I didn't trust the guys for a long time, but decided to pick up a few just to see what everyone was talking about. I am reasonably certain that they consume ditritus (as are most people). The other day one ended up in my fuge (glass bottom with ditritus), worked his way into a pile of the junk, the pile kept shrinking while he sat there, when it was all gone, he moved on...

[floppyfish]

So, less of the water changes. I really didn't want to be doing all that work. But, I really haven't had a cycle. I test every time before I do a change. So, the ammonia and nitrites would have shown up you'd think, especially after a week. I think I'll still stick with the 5-6g once a week change since I heard bigger is better.

Besides no corals yet that would be affected by the fluctuations in water conditions.

[Strife]

i have had all sorts of algea problems..(diatoms, cyano, hair algea..you name it )

i have also used many hobbyist recomendations including using carbon, adding more critters, siphoning it out. etc...

but the best that worked for me is adding caulerpa...

caulerpa will consume the excess nutrients before slime algea does... try it..and thank me later