Help With Keeping Sand Clean

I have a saltwater tank and its been setup for 6 mos. I have 3 damsels (my band of idiots) and a lawnmower fish. I have live rock and my water parameters are ok.

I believe the brown maybe left over stain from pellet food? Algae? I also have brown algae that has started growing on a few small spots on the glass. No plants or corals yet. Going slow.

I put Prime in about 2-3 days ago. No change. Any ideas what it is and how to fix it? I want to get ahead of whatever this is. It's been about 2 weeks.

 

I have a saltwater tank and its been setup for 6 mos. I have 3 damsels (my band of idiots) and a lawnmower fish. I have live rock and my water parameters are ok.

I believe the brown maybe left over stain from pellet food? Algae? I also have brown algae that has started growing on a few small spots on the glass. No plants or corals yet. Going slow.

I put Prime in about 2-3 days ago. No change. Any ideas what it is and how to fix it? I want to get ahead of whatever this is. It's been about 2 weeks.

More likley than not it's just the unavoidable diatom bloom....they are feeding on your silicates in your sand...you've just got to keep nutrients low and plow through

 

When you do water changes do you vacum the sand as well? Controling the amount you feed and keeping up with your tank's chores will more than likely get rid of those small patches of algae

 

Thanks for the help. Yes diatom bloom was also mentioned by the fish store owner. I used Prisine not Prime sorry. I'll try more vacuuming. I don't really feed a lot. It started when I tried the pellet food. Only have the 4 little guys for now. I'll work on the other things mentioned as well. I wanted to fix it since it just started.

Any words of wisdom for a nice cleanup guy? I have the lawnmower and he's great for some cleaning. Those damsels are aggressive even to each other. They at some point may need to go as I add other fish.

 

A nassarius snail will keep your samd stirred up and are easy to keep

 

Ok. I'll get one this weekend. Thanks

 

No problems glad I could help

 

No problems glad I could help

Oh my gosh. I only was able to get one those snails ( store only had one left) first it burrowed in the sand took like 20 seconds n it was gone lol. Then it came back out and started cleaning the glass. He cleans like a crazy snail. My tank is so much cleaner and hes only been in there a day. Between the snail n pristine my tank should look great again.

Simply amazing what one little guy can do. Much thanks!

 

Those little guys work miracles