What is on my sand?

[Daddy-o]

This stuff appeared on my sand in a 3 day period.


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[Sniperhank]

If it is a dusting it would be diatoms, which feed off of silicates in the sand. Pretty common in newly established tanks and will fade away over time.
If it clumps together, cyanobacteria. Feeds off of nutrients in the water column and in low flow areas.

 

[Daddy-o]

Clumps. Solution? I got behind in maintenance and finally changed my GFO and carbon reactor. Wasn't able to run my skimmer for last 4 weeks as well. (I got behind with the end of summer and getting kids back to school). All is up and running now - should that take care of it or should I try to scoop it up?


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[agfish12]

Having all that back online will help. Do a water change as well to suck most of it up and you should be fine