White sand not white anymore

[wyatt]

Is there anything I can get to help keep the sand turning and white? The sand is a orange/red color in certain spots and it seems to spread. Is this a good thing or a bag thing? I'm new to this.

[carey]

How long has the tank been up? if its a new tank you'll see diatoms for awhile but they will burn themselves out as the tank matures

[wyatt]

About 7 months old

[carey]

What type of lighting do you run and how long? How often do you feed? Do you have any clean up crew? I would think theres an underlying issue if its still growing....

What are your nitrates and phosphate levels?

[wyatt]

led lights about 9 hrs a day
feed once a day
2 hermit crabs, 2 snails
levels are zero

[wyatt]

is there some kind of fish/invert that would keep the sand turning?

[melosu58]

To me4 that looks like the beginning stages of cyano. We have an article about it in the SW article section. Less feedings and more water flow.

[Bnortz]

Nassarius Snails do a great job of stirring my sand. Also i have heard Diamond watchman gobies do great jobs of stirring sandbeds, but i think they need a lot of sand.

[Pinky77]

Hi there freind that looks like cyano bacteria ie red slime i had a dose of it to easily tread you can buy a good powder treatment that just needs a simple air stone and a air pump you just need to turn of your filtration system to protect your carbon etc this trwatmen oxydises it and eventully kills it of the name of the product is chem clean you should be able to buy it from your lfs im near sure it is red slime you have just double check nip it out know if so as it can spread like crazy i started usein algone nitrate removeing pouches readily alvailble from lfs aswell and it never came back keep me posted on how you get along hope this helps good luck pal .......

[carey]

I also just used chemclean for some red slime algae and it worked overnight. The newer product doesnt even require a water change right after anymore, though I would do one anyways.

[Gti_Leo]

it indeed does look like cyano to me, how is the flow in your tank? try cleaning your power heads. i had the same issue and just had a huge build up of coralline algae on my powerheads.

cyano is natures way od adding oxygen to a poorly oxygenated aquarium. so i'd check your powerheads and your surface agitation if all water polutants are low