Live Sand

[crashoverride]

Hello, I have been runing my 24G nano for almost a month, and my cycle is almost over. Last night I notice some red stuff on the sandbed. It was only on one side of the tank and it looked reddish. What could that possibly be? How do I get rid of it? is it natural to have that?

[sir_dudeguy]

Was it slimy looking, and thick? If so, dont worry..probably just cyano (AKA red slime alga) and will go away in time if you keep nitrates/phosphates down. All part of starting up a new tank :)

[crashoverride]

It did not look that slimy(yet) or thick. I have been doing 5g water changes every week. Hopefully it will go away with this weekends water change.

[Rosseau]

I had a cyano cycle like that for about 2 weeks, not quite, and then it all disappeared.


Potentially this stuff is occuring in a low flow zone. Is there not much water movement in this particular spot? That seems to allow a lot of organisms in the water to settle and colonize your sand bed.

[crashoverride]

Actually, you are right- I believe there isn't much water movement in that section (the red stuff is located under the nozzle where the water comes out off) How can I fix that?

[Rosseau]

Hmm... A picture might help.

Another powerhead, could be aimed at it.. I'm not too sure though, that's a tricky spot.

[crashoverride]

I actually moved the (nozzle) facing downward. I didn't have any of that red stuff untill I pointed it in that direction. I had it facing straight forward and like that I didn't have any of the red stuff. When I had it straight forward, it would move my sand around a lot from the front of the nano cube. Now that I have it facind down, it does not move the sand from the front of the nano, but now I am having the ( red stuff problem). I will try to take a picture tonight and post it up or I will pointed in the direction it used to be to see if that fixes that problem. Or what do you think I should do?

[tlm031]

Wait it out......it'll go away. It's just the algae stage your cycle is in right now. I'm at 2.5mo and it's starting to let up some. Keep your eyes out for pods & little tube worms on your glass (hard white things). Once you start getting pods your tank is doing good things :) HTH They populate like made unless you've got something in there eating them.