swannie

I have about 2 inches of live sand in my tank and am ready to do my first water change.
When I cahgne the water do I vacuum the sand? Does that not take the good bacteria of it?
It is getting green hair algea growing on it. Donn'st the sand turn itself over with the "live" stuff in it so this doesn't happen?
Also, how much green hair algea should I be getting after a month. It seems to me like alot all over the live rock, bit on the glass and the stuff on the sand. The water levels are all bang on and the snails and crabs are working at it but still there seems to be short hair everywhere.

MizRamzi

I hate hair algae! First never vacuum your sand. You can pick up some nassarius snails and they'll sift it for you, gently.
Now for the algae. It's a hard thing to get ride of but doable. I suggest "lights out" this will starve the algae. You can keep them off while your tank cycles. Another thing that causes algae Is if you have your tank near any direct or indirect day light. A good understanding of algae and what makes it grow is helpful, research! Beef up your water changes to 3x weekly, about 20% your LR is full of nutrients and detritus, gotta keep it clean! I took my LR out and gave it a good shaking in the old tank water during a water change. You can also harvest the algae as much as you can, with water flow off. Don't want it flying around your tank. Be patient! If it's as bad as you've describe then it may take a little while. I fought it for 4-5 months! Not saying this will be your case but I couldn't go the lights out way as I had corals in my tank.

Hope this helps. Good luck!

locoyo386

Are your nitrates zero?
How is your water movement inside the tank, without the powerfilters?

swannie

Yes My nitrates are zero.
The water flow from the HOB Filter (Penguin 350) with the Power Head off is good. Everything seems to be blowing. I have also now added in a HOB Protein skimmer. It works great and the water is crystal clear bow. The Turbo Snails are doing good munching up the hair on half the tank - for some reason they never come over to the other side. Wonder if its because they are afraid of the shrimp?

ATP

Another possible cause is the HOB. It might be trapping some food and other sources which will release the nitrates. The GHA might be eating up the nitrates so when you test your water, it appears as 0.

locoyo386

Yeah, that could be, depends on what type of shrimp it is though.

zeeter

Since this sounds like a new tank, it could just be part of the normal tank growth. I know that my tank went through a similar phase. From brown hair on the live rock to green hair on the sand, but it eventually went away. I also cut down my lighting to eight daylight hours per day. When it was really bad I cut it down to six for a while.