sandbed

[cravinmohead22]

ok. my sandbed is a never ending battle with the far left corner becoming a dark green algea and just to the right of the middle becoming brown.(diatoms) now i know the whole new tank thing and it will happen but is there anything i can do to keep it in check. i dont want it to tak over the whole tank. i have tried to move my power heads in different spots to see if its a dead spot but after 4 hours or so after stirring up the top layer it comes back. i have two maxi jet 1200 in a 55 gallon. still not enough flow? the left ph is on the back glass pointing to the middle and up. the right ph is on the side glass pointing in the middle. i tried for a long time to point both of them at each other but it seemed to not work. should i get another power head or upgrade mine to the 1600gph algea free upgrades?????

 

[UnderwaterWorld]

try to aim the powerheads at dead spots, run some phosphate remover

 

[cravinmohead22]

my phosphates are all good and if i point the power heads any closer to the sand it will kick it up.

 

[reeffreak]

Sounds like you have enough flow.Keep nutrients(nitrate,slicates,phosphate) low and it will get better in time.,slowly but it will.

 

[cravinmohead22]

when i do a watr change should i try to vacuum it up or does the kill the bacteria in the live sand???

 

[reeffreak]

Many people do vacuum the top .5'' layer with no problems.However,I'm too lazy to do that.

 

[Altohombre]

isn't that the point of having a cleaner crew?

 

[Bifferwine]

Yeah, if you have a good cleaner crew, they'll keep the sandbed clean for you without compromising the biological filtration in it.

 

[cravinmohead22]

i have 4 nassuris snails that dont even touch the top of the sandbed. the do a hell of a job eating food that drops on the sand but dont seem to eat the diatoms or algea. the other snails do a great job on the rocks. any ideas on what to get. i was thinking of running up to the lfs and picking up 2 fighting conchs.

 

[Bifferwine]

Conchs are cool. I have red footed and queen conchs in my tank. Really, there isn't anything that will eat diatoms. The best you can do is hope that your cleaners stir up the sand enough that the diatoms get mixed in and aren't visible anymore.

 

[cravinmohead22]

the lfs was out of conchs so i picked up 10 red legged hermit crabs.

 

[bjohanson1234]

watch out for your snails with those hermit crabs in there. I had some blue leg hermits that activley hunted snails. They would wait until feeding time to ambush my nassarius snails.

Brian

 

[cravinmohead22]

i was told the red legged hermit were better for that reason but they will eat the snail if they tip over on their back. ill watch out for them though. thanks.

 

[Bifferwine]

No hermits are safe around snails. No matter what color their legs.

 

[cravinmohead22]

my sandbed is getting worst by the hour... i need help.

 

[yote]

It might be a good time to some Marine SAT.It did wanders in my tank.

 

[cravinmohead22]

i went to the lfs and was going to buy that marine SAT you said but they talked me out of it say once i use it i waiil have to use it forever. didnt quite understand that one. the bacteria and algea will fight for food and once the bacteria is gone the algea will be worse. something like that. any ideas?

 

[Bifferwine]

I have heard that tanks can become dependent on it too. I used it for a while to battle the cyano in my 240, and it cleared it up fast. But then I stopped using it, but the algae did not come back. So who knows? It's probably different for every tank.

 

[yote]

My tank didnt become dependant on it.Its like anything else you use.Use it to get a head start on algae problems,then finish off with proper maintance.
I keep a bottle on hand just in case.But so far so good.

 

[cravinmohead22]

well i just bought phosban instead. will this work as well? if not im back to the store to pick it up.