Algae on sandbed (Pictures page 2)

Nice topic and conversation, I'm staying on this one, I have a few small patches of very similar, even in high flow areas

 

Yea I have it in high flow areas as well, it jsut builds up much faster in low flow areas. Will have to get some good pictures on my next day off

 

OK pictures are not the best really need a good camera and macro lens and just know how to use the point and shoot lol. ALso not real thick yet because I stirred it up yesterday

 

Diatoms from the looks of it. Might be cyano but looks like it is staying powdery. Happens when you stir the sand?

 

It always happened but would take a week or so before it would start to look bad. When I do my weekly WC I would give the very top layer of the sand a little swipe with my hand to stir it up and make it white again. Now it seems within 24 hours its back. Im not sure why so fast my nitrates and phosphate are well controlled and lighting is supplied by a dual b ulb T5 HO fixture for 11 hours. Only change to the lighting was I changed the white bulb out for the same bulb a couple weeks ago after 5 months use, blue bulb remains t he same. I have starting heavy dosing of alk and CA to try and raise my levels as well and added a new powerhead.

Am I current in the fact that it can not be Dino or bryposis and it has to be diatoms or cyano? I did order a CUC from you a year ago and think the numbers might be dwindling a little, might be part of the problem

 

What salt mix do you use? Do you filter it after/during aeration and mixing? It may be diatoms coming from the solids in the salt mix.

I filter during the mixing through a microfilter pad and get quite a bit of solids from Reef Crystals, but my water has been much cleaner in the DT since I started. I used to see that material on my sand bed too, but haven't seen it since I filtered. Not sure if it's just because of that.

 

I use corallife and never thought of filtering it. Add it to RO/DI in a 5gal lowes bucket that ive been using since setup, mix real well with my hand and add a powerhead and heater for 12-24 hours before doing a WC. How do you sue t he microfitler pad? Like before pouring to the tank through a pad?

 

Perfect timing! Just started a batch tonight so went down and took some pics.

I was doing that (pouring through an Eshops filter bag), but it was taking too long and some was still passing through.

I bought some square microfilter pads for a Rena canister filter. I then took an 8" piece of 1" PVC and capped one end. I drilled about eight 1/4" holes around the circumference of the pipe. I take a strip of the filter pad and zip tie it around the holes. I put this in my mix tote with an airstone in the pipe and keep the top of the pipe as close as I can to the water surface but still submerged. I then leave that going overnight. The bubbles rise in the pipe and it creates a chimney effect, similar to an undergravel filter. The water gets pulled in through the pad and the solids are filtered out.

The dirty filter is from a 15 gallon batch after about 36 hours of aeration.

 

Man, can't believe the filter got that dirty with new water. That stuff has to accumulate after a while. Now that's taking it another step. You guys come up with some cool ideas.