Brown sand/green glass

[Shane1]

Hi all. my tank and fish have been pretty healthy. But I've been in a battle with diatomes on my sand and green film on my glass. I did a lot of research and came to the conclusion that the brown sand issue is diatomes and the green glass is just normal stuff but it shows up really fast. I can clean the glass and do a light sand cleaning and a 1/2 gallon WC and within a couple hours they both show back up.
This has been going on for several weeks. I came to the conclussion that maybe my R/O water filters were dirty, so I changed those. Next I backed way off on the feeding going from a big sloppy feeding at night to now just a small very controlled feed. Also at one point during this battle I bought and added some sand.Caribean live sand.
Any ideas. I feel like I'm on the right path but if you have anymore guidance I will take it.
My numbers
PH 8.2
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 10

Thanks

 

[marcah]

sounds like phosphates may be running on the high side.. what are you using for food? Tha green on the glass we all get but usually needs to cleaned every couple days..

 

[Smitty]

Your tank is still relatively new, and that's just one of the algae cycles your tank will go thru. They'll eventually fade away, as long as you do your scheduled water changes, and watch your feedings.

 

[SarahSmile]

If your tank has been set up less than 5 months I'd say you are experiencing a pretty normal situation. How long are you leaving your lights on? You can try cutting them back a bit. I had a 14 gallon biocube set up for about 7 months and also battled dirty brown sand and green on the glass. I ended up only keeping the lights on for about 6 hours a day and when I switched to a different tank I got black and white sand so it wouldn't look so dirty and just recently added a sand sifting goby which helped that situation too.
Sounds like you are def on the right track changing your r/o filters and smaller feedings. Perhaps you need some more cleaners tho, try adding 4-5 nass snails (they stir the sand bed) and a couple of others. (if your signature is right and you only have 2 snails) A mix of a few different kinds always helps.

 

[Shane1]

Thanks for all the help.
I'm feeding the clowns with Nutrafin max slow sinking morsels, and feed the tank once a week with 1 Top Fin algae thins waffer broken up into little chunks.
The system is over 2 years old but I've only had it for about 7 months. I have backed off on my lighting as well, the daylighter runs 8 hrs and the actnitic runs 5. I'll back it off even more if I dont get any results soon. I had a sand sifting goby for about 3 days then he went MIA. I found him about a week later. He had gotten into the pump chamber some how. Needless to say he didnt make it. he made a mess out of my tank so I wont be getting another one. The sand surface was clean though while he was around but he got sand everywhere and shifted my rocks as well. I like the nass snails and will get a few more I have 2 now along with a Turbo and a peppermint shrimp that is not listed in my sig. I'm interested in the black sand that you mentioned and will look into it. I bet it looks pretty cool. Thanks again for the help.