Weird stuff floating on my gravel.. ?

[jkogut]

I have a saltwater tank for over a month & a half with sand and it started getting this weird stuff growing ontop of it, looked like brown stringy hair ? Not sure if it was bacteria or what.. so I re-did my whole tank, the lady at the store said i should have used natural gravel instead of sand.. so its been about 2 weeks now & its starting again.. idk what it is or how to get rid of it...please help

 

[TRe]

sounds like either diatoms or cyano... both are completly normal in a tank this young! not sure what they ment by natural gravel but aragonite sand is what you want... as far as im consirned theres nothing natural about gravel in a salt tank tell us more about your tank though, ie. live rock? powerheads? skimmer? tank size? inhabitants? ect...

 

[jkogut]

Its 10 gallon tank with 2 clownfish & a sand starfish.. 2 different sizez of Live rock ..How do i get rid of the diiatoms or cyano? I got it in my tank both when i had sand & the rocks & it looks horrible! Plus my fish dont swim all over anymore they stay hidden in the rocks ! Lorna told me to get rid of the rocks and put the sand back in which i am to do but i know sooner or later that bacteria is going to come back and it drives me nuts!

 

[Brian770]

if its diatoms, it will eventually go away, with help from your clean up crew of course. If you are getting rid of your gravel, which you should, and putting sand back in, you are more than likely going to go through another cycle and you will see some more brown algae on your liverock and sand.

 

[TRe]

you definitly want sand not gravel but as far as cyano and diatoms well diatoms are guna happen no matter what in a new tank but cyano come from high nutrients like nitrates, phosphates ect. and also from a lack of flow ... soo water changes and add a powerhead to increase the flow

 

[jkogut]

Sounds good thanks for the help