Having problems with brown algae

Please don't throw snails in there. Fix the problem dj and everything will work out.

 

Cant buy Live sand just yet to many bills currently. I have 6 species of fish in the tank and they have been doing fine. I check my perams all the time and there is never any fluctuation my ph stays steady at 8.2. I also should have stated that I don't clean anything in the display tank I pull it and clean it in a bucket of salt water. As far a the cycle i am pretty sure its over. The tank has had life in it for 4 months now. What is a big concern for me is the sunlight hitting it. I cant move the tank there is only one spot that it can safely be in and its on my counter because i live in an apartment. I did add a turbo snail and in like 2 days the tank was spotless haha. If switching to live sand will in turn fix the actual problem then i just might have to put it on the credit card and just get it over with. I have been lazy with it because I don't want to drain the tank and get all the life that's in it out and then starting a new cycle and killing all my fish... i could reuse the water i drain though i suppose that would help prevent that right????

 

you wouldn't need to drain the whole tank. I switched out my sand bed and I did take the fish out and the rock and did about a 50% water change. I then took out the sand (left a little to seed the new but you won't do that) and put the rock back in and let the tank run with the skimmer overnight and then added my fish back in. It didn't create a new cycle and everything came through fine.