Something to clean my sand

[sail195]

I have been getting this purplish/brownish algi growing on my sand and have ocasionaly been sifting it out but that is a pita so i am looking for some kind of creature that will keep my sand looking clean... any ideas!?!?!

 

[beckbrass]

Sand sifting star, cuc, sand sifting snail can't remember the name of snail starts with n. All will work.

 

[JayM]

the purple is cyano.

you should work on nutrient export to get that down. if you starve the algae, it will go away

 

[biggyclops]

the purple is cyano.

you should work on nutrient export to get that down. if you starve the algae, it will go away

+1

refugium will help.. also you might be overfeeding

 

[pillowfish]

Nassarius snails work great for keeping the sandbed clean....however without lowering your nutrients you will never fully rid yourself of the problem algae. What size tank do you have and what is your bio-load?

 

[sail195]

I am 36 gal bow front with an aquac Skimmer a chiller and canister filter with just filterfloss.. right now I only have a cleaner shrimp 4 hermits 3 Turbo snalis about a dozen Margarita snails and 5 nassirus snails

 

[beckbrass]

How long has the tank been running?

 

[don in mass]

i have 1 fish left that willing to part with it's a sand sifting dimond gobie you can have him in a week or 2 for $15 lmk don ps whatch out on much your feeding

 

[biggyclops]

how many pounds of live rock? ... so far i would ditch the canister filter.. esp if you have live rock... took me 2 years to realize this AND accept it

 

[Yariel0527]

A bullet goby and a sand sifting star fish, put them together and they will do the job.
I have them on my 120g and They keep my sand bed realy clean.

 

[sail195]

I forgot I added a 6 line wrass on sunday, I have been feeding one very small pinch a day since sunday but have had this problem for awhile before fish and shrimp went in... I started out with 20lbs of live frock and about 20lbs of base rock and 40lbs of live sand. I have great purple groth on the base rock... I know i need to get rid of the canister filter and I want to ad a sump and i think that would hlep bot to mention add more volume to my system I just dont know the best way to go about it.... does anyone have a hob overflow set up? what do you use and what saftys do you have in place in case of power loss?

 

[stingythingy45]

Simple answer is forget getting a critter to fix this problem.
Either you have no skimmer or it's not sufficient,feed too much or it's just the fact that the tank is still rather new.

 

[stingythingy45]

I know i need to get rid of the canister filter

This will be a start.Then put a skimmer on that tank.

 

[sail195]

There is a skimmer on the tank, Have a aquac remora

 

[JohnK]

What do you use for make up water? This can also be a source of nutrients.

If it's a DSB/live sand bed, think twice about a sand sifting star. They eat all your good microfauna in the sand as they sift it.

 

[sail195]

it is a live sand bed... and what do you mean by "make up water" for toping off i am using ro water or if my salinity is on the low side I will mix some salt water to top off with if that is what you are getting at

 

[JohnK]

OK, sand sifting stars eat much of what makes it "live" sand. The sand will still have nitrifying and denitirfying bacteria, but not much else will survive with a sand sifting star.

Yes, that is what I meant by make up water. RO is good, I was just asking in case you were using tap water.

 

[Jocko]

How old is the tank? I've personally never had cyano problems on a tank that wasn't fairly new. I think it's a phase any tank will go through. It's always just disappeared without me having to do anything specific.

Now hair algae on the other hand...

 

[Rone]

Got a sand sifting star fish if you want him.
Frags are always welcome.

 

[JayM]

it is a live sand bed... and what do you mean by "make up water" for toping off i am using ro water or if my salinity is on the low side I will mix some salt water to top off with if that is what you are getting at

Make-up water is the source water used to either top off your tank from evaporation, or mixed salt water for a water change.

'RO' water may be a start, but you may be introducing nitrates, phosphates, or chloramine if you do not have an RODI filter. The DI part is the last stage of deionizing resin, which will get your water down to 0 TDS