dirty sand

[TangMang232]

hey all, i seem to be having a problem keeping my sand clean of what look likes cyano. This is no lie, i did a 15 gallon water change on a 65 gallon tank yesterday and its already starting to appear again. Along with that clean i did a gental sand cleaning as well to get all the junk up. I tested my water and nitrate is a little less then .05ppm. phosphate is 0ppm and silicates are 0ppm. My ammonia and salinity are spot on and my pH is about 8.1 Calcium is about 550ppm and im getting great coraline growth.

My lighting schedual is as follows. PC actinic 11am-11pm... 10000K PC 1pm-8pm and t-5 420 and 10000K mix 12pm-10pm. Could the T-5 be on for to long and creating a lenght of time that might be causing this problem. I get a little growth on the rocks but i clean that off once a month if that, so i dont believe its the water quality. Any assistance in this would be great.

***i tried to post a pic, and when i did the paperclip i hit upload to the pic that i picked and it didnt give me an option to add the pic. what can i do about this so i can get you guys a pic.

[rmlevasseur]

Maybe try a different test kit to be sure of your water parameters

[sasquatch]

tell us about your flow, or lack of, how old is the tank, try photobucket for the pics.Steve

[zy112]

I agree it could be from lack of flow and dead spots.

[TangMang232]

i have a filter that is doing about 400 gph and 2 hydor koralia 2's on the back aimed kinda toward the center.

The test kit i use is API. I had my cousin bring over his salifert test kit and the only difference was the pH. my kit showed 8.1 and his showed 8.3 so either way there within range.

The tank itself is about 9 months old. I battled it when the tank was first set up and then i tuned the lights down a bit and it went away. My waterflow hasnt been different since the start of the tank and now.

[lcstorc]

Ultimately what is keeping the algae alive is either excess nitrates and/or phosphates. The algae cannot live without the food necessary to keep it alive. The reason you are showing low - 0 on those parameters is because the algae is eating the excess nutrients. The only way to get rid of it and keep it gone is to starve it out. Flow and new bulbs can certainly help but reducing feedings and increasing water changes is the best way to truly solve the problem.

[TangMang232]

I feed once a day, and some days i miss due to work schedule. Is that to much. I feed liquid foods for corals once a week and/or after doing water changes. I probably should replace my bulbs. I have had the unit for about 7 months now and they are PC. Replace them??? I guess ill try and keep ahead of it with a lot of small water changes 3-4 times a week if i can and see what happens. does this sound like a plan. Thanks for all your guys help.

[lcstorc]

What kind of liquid food are you feeding the coral. That could well be the problem. Most prepared food is high in phosphates as well so you want to rinse it all in ro/di water before feeding.
You say you feed once a day but how much of what do you feed and what is the bio-load in the tank?
Lots of water changes will certainly help. Manually removing the cyano when it forms is the very best thing since when you remove the cyano you will remove the nutrients that it has eaten.

[TangMang232]

usually one small pinch. I love to watch my fish eat and my shrimp go nuts too. Whatever food makes it tot he bottom the shrimp get in seconds. I should post a video of them eating. neways, i do manually remove the cyano, im just starting to get annoyed with that.

The liquid food is calcium, coral vite, coral accel, DT live phytoplankton, and cyclops. I usually mix about 1 tbs of this and mix into a 65 gallon once a week. Not a whole lot of food that often at all.

The bio-load should be low, i have about 40-45 lbs of LR and 80 lbs of LS in a 65 gallon. I have about 10 pieces of everage sized coral and 5 fish. Radiant wrasse, clown, six-line wrasse, and 2 firefish.