Sand bed issues

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Discuss all topics related to saltwater / reef tanks.


Snowboss4492
 
Posts: 2098
Joined: Sun Jan 27, 2008 11:24 pm

Sand bed issues

by Snowboss4492

Ok i have been screwin with this hair algae far to long....................i basically have a lot of corals waiting for me to pick up but i dont want to until i get this shit under control

i am doing weekly 25% water changes, ive raise salinity, lowered salinity to really no avail, it did wipe out a red slime out break i had.

i bought a new skimmer rated for 65 gallon tanks {mines a 20 long} ive moded the wet/dry filter and overflow so its basically a standard sump, new power head so i have stupid water movement and im still physically scrubbing the rocks pretty much weekly to remove hair algae - the last thing i havent touched is the sand bed, its 4 inches deep and 1 1/2 yrs old. I am not really sold on deep sand beds anymore and wondering if it's actually crashed . that being said


can i just syphon out a bunch of sand and let it recycle or will that cause a major tank crash

should i syphon out most of it and add a new bag of araglive

thoughts? ideas??


Boss


Gldntrmite8894
 
Posts: 62
Joined: Mon Mar 16, 2009 4:54 pm

by Gldntrmite8894

I would think that removing half and then adding a high quality sand back in would give your tank the kick start that it needs.


blueshoes2208
 
Posts: 1077
Joined: Sat Apr 12, 2008 4:01 pm

by blueshoes2208

maybe you have a different type of algae in your tank? Ive heard of a type of algae in the mediterannean that escpaed from a labratory and it has taken over the whole sea over there, they said it will eventually take over the world, being serious too, it only takes one cell to grow the whole plant, every cell has the genetic information to begin a new cell, if you have something like that youre so screwed you dont stand a chance... hopefully not though :))


newbie916
 
Posts: 375
Joined: Sat Jun 21, 2008 3:12 pm

by newbie916

I actually had the same issue your running into a year ago. I bought an established tank and I couldn't get rid of the hair algae. I bought my current 95 gallon and transferred all of the rocks and sand over from the old tank. I scrubbed the hair algae off everything and strained my sand and rinsed out most of the crap with the old salt water from my system. I did this to 80% of my sand. My hair algae disappeared after two weeks and I bought a Long Spined Urchin that keeps all the algae in check. Down side is that he loves pulsing xenia's, so I can't keep those guys anymore. I'm not sold on deep sandbeds either. I just vacuum my sandbed every other week to keep it nice and white. There's a little biological filtration in the back side of my tank, but I've noticed a huge difference since I keep my sand clean. I figured the 160lbs of live rock is good enough filtration along with my protein skimmer and macro in my fuge. Anyways, I would suck out some of the nasty stuff and see what happens. Make sure you have enough pre mixed salt water, just in case your water quality changes. I never had a problem though, but I started doing weekly 20% water changes. Good luck Boss.


Snowboss4492
 
Posts: 2098
Joined: Sun Jan 27, 2008 11:24 pm

by Snowboss4492

i keep a 10 gallon tank running with mix in the basement at all times, as soon as i do a water change the RO/DI hose goes in and in fill it back up.

i think im going to suck all but about 1 - 1 1/2 inches out , i have a 7 gallon bow front not doing anything so ill put it there and then play with cleaning it without worrying about a tank crash

urchin eh? he likes the green crap? what do you feed him when he's done with algae? or does it come back enough for him to suvive? other than the occasional zenia that is {that sux, lol}

Blue...............christ i hope i dont have some sort of super algae !!!! that would be just m,y luck though, great now im gonna go down in history as the guy who wiped out the world with algae, lol

thanks guys

Boss


newbie916
 
Posts: 375
Joined: Sat Jun 21, 2008 3:12 pm

by newbie916

The long spine urchins get pretty big and I have to trim his spines every once and a while. I don't have to supplement his feeding because there's enough algae growing to keep him healthy. I do occassionally feed my fish some ulva and red grac from my fuge. He'll munch on that as well. He eats any algae including the green stuff that pops up. I haven't seen green hair algae on my rocks since I got him. My xenia colony is in my 29 gallon:)

I don't think you'll have a major tank crash from cleaning your sand a little. It's crazy how much crap you'll suck up. I've been cleaning the sand weekly for about a month because I'm moving my tanks this weekend. My water quality is still reading perfect right now. Thank God...

Chris


snowboss
 
Posts: 458
Joined: Mon Jan 28, 2008 6:53 pm

by snowboss

nice..........i have a lot of rock structure in there and not a crazy amount of flat sand area, does the urchin climb on the rocks without any issues, also i have a lot of flow can they handle that as well? if so i think i might order one

thanks for the tip

Boss


fihsboy
 
Posts: 1837
Joined: Wed Mar 19, 2008 4:20 pm

by fihsboy

Urchins are sweet but they eat the purple algaes too. :( My pencil urchin was devouring the corraline algae in my tank.


newbie916
 
Posts: 375
Joined: Sat Jun 21, 2008 3:12 pm

by newbie916

No problem, they could climb virtually anything and high flow doesn't bother them. The only places he can't reach are behind my powerheads. He does munch on a little corraline algae, but nothing noticable. Good luck Boss


Snowboss4492
 
Posts: 2098
Joined: Sun Jan 27, 2008 11:24 pm

by Snowboss4492

thanks bud

Sand bed issues

30 posts • Page 1 of 3

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