# Little Sand Problem. Help Please



## JohnnyD (Nov 24, 2009)

Recently my sand has started to turn green and stick together almost in sheets. Its only doing this in the very front of my tank and every where I have searched to try and figure out why its doing this it says it might be because there isnt enough flow there. Thats not the case here because there is plenty of flow in the front of my tank and it even blows the sand away sometimes. 

All my parameters are pretty good:
Salinity: 1.026
pH: 8.3
Alk: 2-2.5 meq/L
Nitrates: 0
Nitrites: 0
Calcium: 450
Ammonia: 0

Any idea what is causing this? Here are some pictures taken on a phone, so the color is a little off and the quality is decent at best:


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## tanks4thememories (Jun 18, 2010)

How long has the tank been set up?
What type of sand do you have?
Has anything changed or been added just before this started?
How many hours per day do you leave the light on?


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## TexasTanker (May 5, 2010)

Is it live sand?


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## tanks4thememories (Jun 18, 2010)

TexasTanker said:


> Is it live sand?


All sand and rock is eventually 'Live" after it has been in a marine aquarium long enough. Unfortunately all "live" sand is not made of the same materials because people choose different ways and materials to start their aquariums.


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## JohnnyD (Nov 24, 2009)

tanks4thememories said:


> How long has the tank been set up?
> What type of sand do you have?
> Has anything changed or been added just before this started?
> How many hours per day do you leave the light on?


Tank has been up since late November-early December. I bought live sand from the LFS, paid like 5 extra bucks for the "pre-rinsed" sand which clouded up anyway haha. I havent added anything in a while. The last thing I added was the 6 line wrasse and that was probably late april-early may. Actitics come on an hour before and stay on an hour longer than the rest of the lights, which are on for 12 hours a day.


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## onefish2fish (Jul 22, 2008)

try adding a dozen nassarious snails to help stir the sand bed


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## tanks4thememories (Jun 18, 2010)

JohnnyD said:


> Tank has been up since late November-early December. I bought live sand from the LFS, paid like 5 extra bucks for the "pre-rinsed" sand which clouded up anyway haha. I havent added anything in a while. The last thing I added was the 6 line wrasse and that was probably late april-early may. Actitics come on an hour before and stay on an hour longer than the rest of the lights, which are on for 12 hours a day.



Hmmm. See if this sounds like your problem?
*http://www.fishtankforums.com/posts...-maintenance/9376-green-sand/60689-post5.html*


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## JohnnyD (Nov 24, 2009)

tanks4thememories said:


> Hmmm. See if this sounds like your problem?
> *http://www.fishtankforums.com/posts...-maintenance/9376-green-sand/60689-post5.html*


Yea, i came across that post when i was googling it. This would have to be a last resort for me I guess because I am worried about my corals with this method. I tried just scooping out all the sand and giving it a little stir myself. We will see if this had any benefit or not.


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## tanks4thememories (Jun 18, 2010)

JohnnyD said:


> Yea, i came across that post when i was googling it. This would have to be a last resort for me I guess because I am worried about my corals with this method. I tried just scooping out all the sand and giving it a little stir myself. We will see if this had any benefit or not.


Ok sorry I couldn't be more help. I am still researching it myself. I have never seen anything like that before...lol 
I'm curious Are the clumps hard or spongy?


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## JohnnyD (Nov 24, 2009)

tanks4thememories said:


> Ok sorry I couldn't be more help. I am still researching it myself. I have never seen anything like that before...lol
> I'm curious Are the clumps hard or spongy?


No need to apologize. I appreciate all your help. Yea, it is pretty interesting haha. The clumps are soft, but it stays in tact pretty well in the form of sheets that are about a quarter inch thick. The top of the sheet is a little harder than the bottom tho. 

I dunno if this assumption is correct, but it might be some kind of algae. The only reason I think this is because the bubble algae on one of my live rocks is also flourishing... almost so much im beginning to worry it wont stop haha. Maybe the conditions in my tank are overly favorable to algae at the moment for some reason? Just a thought...


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## JohnnyD (Nov 24, 2009)

You can see some of the bubble algae in the pictures on the rock on the right. come to think of it, the bubble algae is right next to where the sand has been doing this...


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## tanks4thememories (Jun 18, 2010)

JohnnyD said:


> No need to apologize. I appreciate all your help. Yea, it is pretty interesting haha. The clumps are soft, but it stays in tact pretty well in the form of sheets that are about a quarter inch thick. The top of the sheet is a little harder than the bottom tho.
> 
> I dunno if this assumption is correct, but it might be some kind of algae. The only reason I think this is because the bubble algae on one of my live rocks is also flourishing... almost so much im beginning to worry it wont stop haha. Maybe the conditions in my tank are overly favorable to algae at the moment for some reason? Just a thought...


Yes that is what I was thinking. Especially since it is soft. It is really only 1 of 3 things:
1) Algae
2) Bacteria
3) Coral secretions - I don't keep coral so I have no idea how feasible this even is...lol

Those are however the only logical possibilities. And I lean mostly towards Algae and I cant wait till I find out what it is. Mystery's drive me crazy...lol


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## cbusexaminer (Jun 12, 2010)

whats your tank temp?


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## JohnnyD (Nov 24, 2009)

cbusexaminer said:


> whats your tank temp?


its a little high, around 83 degrees. I live in Texas and I dunno what to do to bring the temp down. Ive already taken out the heater completely. do you think the increased temp may be causing this? I can tell it has a negative effect on some of my corals because some wont come out as far as they usually do. What can I do to bring the temp down? they dont have chillers...do they?


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## bearwithfish (Sep 29, 2009)

yes chillers are available but i just float clean frozen bottles of water or ice packs in my sump and change them every few hours ... with the ice packs i double bag them in a zip bag so that if they leak nothing gets in my water it helps a lot... i am at the point now where i change them in the morning and two to three times during the day and i hold close to 80 right now (down from 89 three days ago) just bring it down slow so nothing goes into shock LOL


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## onefish2fish (Jul 22, 2008)

JohnnyD said:


> its a little high, around 83 degrees. I live in Texas and I dunno what to do to bring the temp down. Ive already taken out the heater completely. do you think the increased temp may be causing this? I can tell it has a negative effect on some of my corals because some wont come out as far as they usually do. What can I do to bring the temp down? they dont have chillers...do they?


your going to want a heater in the tank so at night when its cooler the temp doesnt drop. bouncing around in temps is bad news on fish and corals. even if its a few degrees thats a HUGE change to them. heat needs to be taken care of though as it will kill your corals eventually if not dealt with.


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## JohnnyD (Nov 24, 2009)

onefish2fish said:


> your going to want a heater in the tank so at night when its cooler the temp doesnt drop. bouncing around in temps is bad news on fish and corals. even if its a few degrees thats a HUGE change to them. heat needs to be taken care of though as it will kill your corals eventually if not dealt with.


how do i deal with it tho? float frozen bottles of water like the poster above said? It almost gets down to 80 by morning then up to 83 through out the day.


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## onefish2fish (Jul 22, 2008)

floating bottles would be a temp. fix, investing in a chiller would be the long term fix. i guess whichever fits your set-up will be the way to go.


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## onefish2fish (Jul 22, 2008)

heres a basic video on what happens to corals long term due to heat. i have heard natural reefs will be GONE in the next 10 years or so due to heat in our enviroment. the symbiotic algae that hosts corals abandon when things get to hot and in turn the coral bleaches and starves. this guy in the video isnt very scientific. a coral is an animal, not a plant but the algae that hosts them, are plants. the coral just feeds off the hosting algae.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDHC_5EHyNM

and heres a link i had saved about coral reefs being gone. they actaully say it will be due to a carbon dioxide increase which really heat reduces gas exchange and the ammount of oxygen in the water
http://www.enn.com/top_stories/article/40175
any long term heat will make corals abandon their hosting algae though, and they will start to bleach.


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## JohnnyD (Nov 24, 2009)

onefish2fish said:


> heres a basic video on what happens to corals long term due to heat. i have heard natural reefs will be GONE in the next 10 years or so due to heat in our enviroment. the symbiotic algae that hosts corals abandon when things get to hot and in turn the coral bleaches and starves. this guy in the video isnt very scientific. a coral is an animal, not a plant but the algae that hosts them, are plants. the coral just feeds off the hosting algae.
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDHC_5EHyNM
> 
> and heres a link i had saved about coral reefs being gone. they actaully say it will be due to a carbon dioxide increase which really heat reduces gas exchange and the ammount of oxygen in the water
> ...


cool posts. ive seen this happen in my tank before. had a heat spike for a day a couple months ago and my monti pora bleached. it is pretty much back to normal now tho. Obviously, a chiller would be ideal but i dont know how much they run. do you have a chiller you can recommend for a 46 gallon?


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## onefish2fish (Jul 22, 2008)

i dont have one i can suggest, and i do know they can be pricey. it might be a good idea to shop around on ebay, craigslist, a local reefing club, for a used one. i would also keep in mind any future upgrades ( id hate to see you drop $100-200 on a chiller that wont be strong enough for your next tank down the road, if there will be one )

i dont think a heat spike for one day would cause much if any bleaching unless the temps ran high but its very well possible. once you pass about 85+ your in the danger zone. long term id say even 80+ can be dangerous. ive had my tank at 80 though during summer months with no visible ill effects.


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## JohnnyD (Nov 24, 2009)

so im still having this sand problem and ive been keeping the temp lower simply by keeping the house cooler...hopefully something i wont have to do long term since that will get expensive haha. i have noticed my forgspawn is coming out a little more but I expected that to happen. i have just been removing the clumps of sand by hand but im worried im going to lose too much sand. I have some more sand stored away that i could add if needed but I'd like to get to the root of this problem. do you think bringing a clump of the sand to my LFS would be of any benefit? i hate to say it but I havent been impressed with them at all lately so I havent been there in a couple of weeks. has anyone seen anything else like this on a diff forum or anything? I appreciate all input. Thanks guys


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## BlueHalo (Mar 15, 2009)

Hi Johnny, from what I can see here this is probably a lighting/nutrient/flow issue... lighting is either failing (shifting spectrum) Nutrient as in elevated but perhaps undetectable nitrate (try running purigen fantastic stuff) and Flow... not quite enough movement to stir up detritus which is breaking down in the sand bed and feeding an algae, sand sifters for your cuc would help but check the age of your lights, what are they by the way? I think the algae is probably the same as the harder green algae that grows on your glass, not coraline just green, good luck!


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## thor1 (Jun 14, 2008)

BlueHalo I agree, and the algae is a form of Cyano bacteria, I've had this before, it comes in a number of colors can be red or even black. 
Solution. 
Feed less, increase flow *maybe even change flow direction, mechanical removal.


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