Algae eating, sand dwelling starfish?

[Nonfamous]

Is there such a thing? I know SSS clean the sand, but do they eat algae that grows on the sand also? Any other stars eat algae?

FWIW, my black crap on the sand is now green. PO is .25 or less and NO is 0.0. Not sure where the "food" for this stuff is coming from. Its going to be a long task removing the sand so I need to clean up some of this naturally.

 

[Bifferwine]

No, they don't eat algae. They eat detritus, uneaten food and microfauna that lives in the sand.

 

[AdamC]

Have you changed your light bulbs?
Old bulbs can feed it\

 

[Nonfamous]

LEDs. New.

I'm taking a sample of my sand to the LFS in the AM. Maybe they can offer up a solution.

Thanks.

 

[bjohanson1234]

You phosphates and nitrates are reading 0 because the algae is consuming them before you can test for them. I would bet that they are leaching out of the sand and rock work.

It can take a long time to get problem algae under control. It took almost a year for me to get hair algae under control when I first started my tank.

 

[Nonfamous]

Yeah I'm trying to avoid removing the sand. It's very frustrating. I use what I thought was quality sand and rock to avoid this but alas it didn't happen. I'm looking for a natural way to clean this up. I run Phosban 24/7 and have for a long time. I've tried reduced feeding and blackouts. Seems like the harder I try the worse it gets. I was hoping to find a critter to eat it.