Sand turning brown

[Petalas82]

We started a salt water tank 2 months ago it's a 75 gal tank. Our live sand has turned mostly brown. We called the store they said it is normal for a newly started tank and it will go away. Is this normal and if so how long will it last. Is there anything we should be doing. Our levels have been normal. I heard that I should not vacuum the hold tank at one time is that true?

[JustinKBreen]

Nothing to worry about, completely normal for a new tank. Just keep water quality up and it will eventually go away.

[Sniperhank]

Just diatoms. They will go away when the silicates are consumed from your tank.

[bavass]

are you using ro/di water?

[Petalas82]

The water I use it tap water with prime to treat the water.

[bavass]

Theres your problem, you need to use RO/DI water Prime does nothing but remove chlorine nothing to remove, nitrates, phosphates, silicates, tds, all the stuff that algae and cyano thrive on. Invest in a RO/DI unit.

[Petalas82]

Wow is RO/DI a additive I can buy like prime. As you can tell I am 100% newbie with this.

[Petalas82]

Ooo it's a water treatment system. Ok so I would just hook that up to my house and use the water that comes out of the RO/DI system for my tank. Can I run warm water there that too so my salt will dissolve.

[bavass]

i use a 20g brute trash can, fill it with ro/di bout 72 degrees, add salt, powerhead and let it sit 24 hours to mix salt

[Petalas82]

Is there any kind of RO/DI system I should get. Also I take it you have warm water running through your RO/DI system so you can get to the 72 temp.

[CorallineAlgae]

I love the systems that bulk reef supply sell. Best quality and prices. I bought three different RO systems and the BRS one is my favorite. I didn't get a DI model. Only the house RO model. The. RO/DI units are the cats meow though.

[Petalas82]

Ok cool, do you put a heater in the water so you get it to 72 or do you run warm water through the RO system.

[carey]

You put a heater and powerhead in the bucket or trash can to mix and get the water to temp. You never run warm water through an ro/di, not sure where i read it but it was pretty firm on that fact. lol

I also have the BRS ro/di unit. I upgraded from this one:

0PPM Portable 100GPD Reverse Osmosis RO+DI Filtration | eBay

to this one

75 GPD RO/DI 5 Stage *PLUS* System - English

The second one will be on sale to people to sign up for the group buy and it will be $180 instead of the $200.

Also, I started out with the cheap one I linked and to be honest i found it to be a great little unit for $66. lol It's portable as well and can be hooked up to your sink or garden hose and put away when youre done. The larger one, the BRS one, is more of a permanent solution as it's alot bigger and has an extra stage.

The diatoms should clear up as people are saying above, but the tap water usage ill eventually come back to bite you. i started with tap water and it was a pain with algae and phosphates and took months to get the water back to where it should have been.

Hope that helps!

[JustinKBreen]

Until you can get a ro unit I would imagine your lfs sells ro water and mixed salt water

[bavass]

the idea is to run your water through the RO/DI between a certain range in temp, if its to cold or to warm is cause the DI to get used up faster....yes go with a bulkreefsupply unit 4 stage is fine 5 stage is a little better.

[Petalas82]

Thanks everyone I think I got some great info and a great idea on this for now. 1 last thing I did hear not to vacuum my tank all at once. I do a water change every 2 weeks so should i vac my 75 half every water change. Is that true??

Thanks

[melosu58]

Why not get a CUC and let them clean the substrate fo you.

[Petalas82]

What is a CUC? sorry this is all new to me.

[Petalas82]

Never mind thanks to google I looked up CUC lol. We had 5 snails and 5 crabs all the snails have died and 2 out of 5 crabs have died. Not sure why they did our water leaves are fine and so is our salt. How many should I go out and buy and is there a really good kind to get.

Thanks everyone for your help.

[Sniperhank]

They are dead from eithet lack of food or ammonia/nitrates. The brown stuff is diatoms and wont be cleaned up by a cuc in all reality. Im currwntly trying to not flip out as my 55 goes through an awful bloom that will be worse once my new sump goes in with tons of new silicon on it.