Sand is turning brown?

[CEverii]

This usually happen over time? My pretty white sand has started turning brown. Just the top layer so far. Any ideas? Im thinking its algae. I have algae (coraline and some hard green algae) taking over the glass of my tank. I guess thats a good thing? Purple spots are everywhere. I scraped it all off of the front with a razor but left it on the sides and back.

But the whole brown sand thing has me a little worried. Any ideas?

 

[Crepe]

It's diatoms.

 

[dannyb]

Yeah, Give your tank a good half year to a year to fully establish and once you have your nitrate/phosphate levels down low it should be ok.

 

[cmor1701d]

It does sound like diatoms. They will go away over time. How long has this tank been up and running?

Coralline scraping is a regular maintenance chore. I scrape the glass at each PWC, leaving just the back glass untouched.

 

[melosu58]

That`s why I have a super sifter in my tank. My sand has been in this tank for 5 yrs now and still white. Try a bullet goby.

 

[CEverii]

Tanks been up about 7 months now.

I really do want to get a bullet goby. But, im just afraid he will bring my rocks down lol. They are just stacked on top of eachother. If he were to get into them and start sifting between the rocks, that could be bad news bears. My clown fish drive me crazy enough as it is moving sand around with their tails. Kinda funny to watch though. They will hunker down in the sand and rev their tails super fast to make a small craiter.

 

[pat8you]

If your rocks are not already sitting on the bottom glass it is a really good idea to move them there. There are a lot of way that the sand can get shifted or moved and topple the rocks. It also creates dead spots in your sand bed that are bad news. As long as the rocks are on the glass a bullet goby won't be able to move them.