sand bed picture help needed

[quiksilver]

My sand was perfect 3 weeks ago before I got rid of my sand shifting star because people on RC told me that SSS aren't good for sand beds.

I got a queen conch that you can see in the picture but it only goes in the sand when I put it there. It still isn't enough to clean up my sand.

Now what? I want my white sand back.

[quiksilver]

^bump

[TheBimbo]

bump

[vester_72]

How old is the tank and how deep is the sand bed? If you do not have a DSB (at least 4"), the star may be good for keeping the sand clean.

Those look like dinoflagelettes - they are a b@#*h to get rid of.

This is just a guess, but I would bet the star decimated the sandbed, so there is not enough life in it to function properly to fight off the dinos. Prior to getting rid of of the star, it sifted the sand and kept the dinos away (keeping the sand clean).

I would do water changes and reseed the sandbed. The dinos are caused by excess nutrients (I have first-hand experience).

But, if you did not have this issue prior to getting rid of the star, maybe you should add another one. There are a lot of people that have had success without using a DSB (I use one, but that is not to say it is the only way)

Just my thoughts. . .

[melev]

That little conch is too small for a job that size. I remember my Tang and Angel both taking bites out of that stuff in my 55g a long time ago. It was dinoflaggelates. It is caused by excessive nutrients (heavy feeding), high phosphates ( should be .03 or less), and can be siphoned from the tank with airline tubing.

I couldn't stand it after 2 weeks and siphoned away all I saw. If you don't want to lose the sand, siphon it all into a pot and boil the heck out of it. Then pour the water off and put it in the sun to dry out for two days. Finally you can put that clean sand back into your tank.

Your DSB could be lifeless, but you can take a cup of LS from your refugium and put it into the main DSB again. Just pour the cup out onto your DSB in a mound, not spreading it out. The critters will spread naturally on their own and the mound will go down from the current in your tank (and any livestock).

How about a nice TigerTail cucumber?

[cuongvynguyen]

quiksilver that is a common sight for every reef tank at some point, in fact... unless you are somehow exporting the excess nitrate and phosphate that is gradually building up from feeding fishes and fish poop. The build up of nitrates and phosphates will always result in dino and cyanobacteria.

Don't worry about the queen conch, in two months time they will be too large to climb rocks and in a years time you'll wonder if you have enough sand for them to sift through.

The quick solution for now is to purchase some phosphate removers (DO NOT buy absorbers!), I've had good luck with phosguard and recently switched over to phosban after reading Randy's report on aluminum based phosphate removers.

For now cut down on your feeding, photoperiod as well as a (roughly) 20% weekly water change using only RO/DI water until the algae problem goes away and your water is crystal clear. Drip kalkwasser in as top off if you can, this will help precipitate phosphates further.

[quiksilver]

Thanks for the replys. I ran some stuff to get rid of phosphates before which dropped them considerably. I took that picture a couple days ago and I ran more phospates sponge through the system last night. The sand is already considerably better.

Thanks,
Evan