Help with sand issues

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#1
Ive been battling with this sand over a month now. i cant figure out what it is the only thing i do know is that its not cyano.
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#7
my parameters are perfect 0 phospahte and nitrate alk at 7.8-8.0 ph 8.3. my tanks has been up for 8 months now. i dont think its cyano because its not slimy and its more brown than red also its only on the sand.
 
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#8
Could it be coral line algae on your substrate? How are the rocks?
my parameters are perfect 0 phospahte and nitrate alk at 7.8-8.0 ph 8.3. my tanks has been up for 8 months now. i dont think its cyano because its not slimy and its more brown than red also its only on the sand.
 
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#9
my parameters are perfect 0 phospahte and nitrate alk at 7.8-8.0 ph 8.3. my tanks has been up for 8 months now. i dont think its cyano because its not slimy and its more brown than red also its only on the sand.
I'm gunna guess that maybe you don't have enough flow across the sand bed. Just direct light with no movement, just a guess.


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#11
It definitely Is Cyano. Phosphate is not the only thing that can contribute to it. Also silicates among other things. Make sure you're only using zero TDS R/O DI water for your top off and not overfeeding.
 
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#12
I agree, looks like cyano! Try more flow and a big water change followed by small frequent water changes. A 3 day lights out period will help in the start. Are you running any gfo or carbon? That helps too. I battled it for a while and had some success but it always came back...I ended up using chemiclean and that wiped it out!
 
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#14
Use a small diameter piece of tubing and suck it out. Lightly over the top so you dont remove a ton of sand but enought to remove it. A bacterial supplement would also help.
 

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#15
Does it produce bubbles? Maybe google dinoflagellets and see if it looks something like that. When I dealt with dinos in the beginning looked like brown cyano, then it started to produce bubbles and string up. It can also thrive in low nutrient tanks In my experience and flow has little to no effect.

Are you positive you're using 0 TDS water?
 
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