sandbed and red algae problems help??

[jaydm93teg]

ok what can i get that is gonna clean my sand bed of red algae. Also how long after i start using RO water should my algae problems start to clear up??

it seems like my hair algae is going away but the red algae and some neon green streaks are starting to show up on my glass. My water PARAMS test fine.

Im going to get calcium and alkalinity test today for my corals and i just started using RO like a week ok there is only 5 gallons of RO water in my 29 gallon tank so maybe like a month or so and it should be all RO water??

also i dont really have a good clean up crew just a few hermits (blue legged) and like 6 giant red foot snails that is it so what can i add today

 

[ronnieblaze]

blue leg hermits do a good job of eating red algae i think...

 

[jaydm93teg]

well i am going to be keeping corals so is stuff like sand sifting stars or anything like that an option?

 

[ronnieblaze]

i dont know anything about sand sifting stars... except that they need to be acclimated very slowly and can not let air hit them when transferring over into the tank..

 

[jaydm93teg]

o ok

 

[sparksfly]

Is the red algae cyano? If it is then you might want to try cutting the time down that your lights stay on each day. And you can also add more flow so you have no dead spots.

 

[cameron]

Suck it out, water change increase the flow, switch to RO water, cut the feedings. Running a day or two without lights might help as well.

 

[jaydm93teg]

yeah i just recently a week ago added 2 power heads......i bought a HOB skimmer should be here tomm. so with all that and i have switched to RO like a said about a week ago started doing RO top off. You think i should run no lights at all for a few days or should i run my White and Blue lunar leds or what

 

[jaydm93teg]

and the red is starting to cover the sand bed how do i get the sand bed clean without vacuming i mean i need to start building my CUC anyway since i hever really had one when i started the tank up

 

[gwhiz]

Why don't you want to vaccum it out?

 

[jaydm93teg]

i dunno would rather just have a life cycle type deal u know critters doing all the work and all that stuff you know. Just dont have a vacum and dont have the time to do that

 

[jaydm93teg]

ok just added the skimmer today its up and running now i do want bubbles in one of the chambers on the skimmer correct. This is a HOB skimmer so i just wanna make sure i ahve it tweaked correctly.

NOw im goin to the lfs to get some hermits and **** to start fighting this algae

also what kinda of light timeline should i used when cutting down the light to fight the algae