Removing scraped off algae

[madhattertcm]

My girlfriend and I live in her parents old house and they left the saltwater tank there. For the past year or so the only thing in there was the water, live rock and a serpentine starfish. Its grown algae probably way too often, but after the starfish died we've been trying to take care of it more and might have the growth under control.

That said, the algae we had scraped off the walls was pretty thick and disgusting, and it just collects in the sand below. What's the best way to remove it? The gunk from the walls is literally coating the entire floor.

 

[yote]

Just do a decent water change and siphon the algae out.

 

[bjohanson1234]

Reach in with your hands and pull it out.:mrgreen:

Either that you you could try siphoning it out when you do a water change.

 

[Smitty]

I agree with both of the above posts...also, welcome to the site.

 

[madhattertcm]

you know I had tried that but silly me, I'm used to freshwater tanks with gravel, I just stuck the siphon down in the sand and was kicking up so much sand it was almost useless. Tried again just barely touching the floor and everything was much nicer. I'm learning quickly :)

 

[Kelz88]

Yeah you do more of a sweeping motion over the sand, i know what you mean with the fw, you need to get down to the bottom, not so much with sand, you can cause the tank to crash by releasing yuck from the sand.

Some people do turn their sand every water change, but you have to do that from the start.