alright. i cant stand it. im done with sand.

[Glabe]

if there's a spot in the back yard where you can dump it, siphon it through a garden hose. Scraping it out is hard work, and it makes a nasty noise with the sand on the glass... hate thinking about the nastiness!

 

[Bushkill]

It sounds like you have Cyanobacteria, not algae. Maracyn is one way to "treat" it but you have to figure out what the root cause is. Does it smell musty? It has a very distinctive smell. I am almost positive that is what you have though, and if you can manually remove it and do big water changes, along with encourage fast growing plants, I think you will beat it...I know I have (and fortunately have never had to resort to dosing Maracyn)

I agree here. If there are deep emerald green "sheets" appearing it's cyano.

What I'm not understanding from this is how the removal of sand is going to solve the problem. Bacterial blooms are fed by decaying organic matter. With other substrates obviously being more porous, I think your problem will get worse. Maybe not immediately, but in time. If you don't have cories, I would give some thought to things like what if any plants are in the tank, adding snails, testing source water for nitrates and phosphates (using a quality test kit or calling your water co.), feeding schedule / foods used, stocking levels, filtration and photoperiod. Every "bad thing" happens fast and has a cause. It just take some patience to figure out how to defeat the cause.

 

[Glabe]

Every "bad thing" happens fast and has a cause. It just take some patience to figure out how to defeat the cause.

This is Amurica! we don't need causes; we throw medication at the problem!

 

[Bushkill]

This is Amurica! we don't need causes; we throw medication at the problem!

WAY too much truth in that, lol!

PS. I haven't used Maracyn in years, nor any of the "cyn's" . I'm pretty sure you have to take any biological filtration off-line while using it.

 

[dundadundun]

It sounds like you have Cyanobacteria, not algae. Maracyn is one way to "treat" it but you have to figure out what the root cause is. Does it smell musty? It has a very distinctive smell. I am almost positive that is what you have though, and if you can manually remove it and do big water changes, along with encourage fast growing plants, I think you will beat it...I know I have (and fortunately have never had to resort to dosing Maracyn)

same impression i got... cyano...

root cause is often lack of N in a planted tank. dirty filters and decaying plant matter often complicate the issue IME. too much light never helps any "algae" related issues, either... especially in the event the daylight hours are way too long.

that being said... if the plants are starving for nitrogenous compounds, gravel isn't going to fix the problem. a nutrient enriched substrate (and water column if at all possible) would be necessary to get on the right path for sustainability. preferably a substrate with a good cation exchange rate and/or some natural substance.

to get the sand out...
remove inhabitants and decor into a temporary tank.
take as little or as much water from the tank as you want for the temp tank.
then wet vac it out.

it don't get any easier.

 

[THE V]

If it's a planted tank the sand is better than gravel for holding plants in place and forming roots. I've got sand on the bottom and 1/2 inch of gravel on top of it. The gravel stays on top very well and the plants love it.

 

[bobsaget]

its a regular lighted tank..so no crazy plants in there. i have java moss. and a java fern, that is slowly growing new pieces off its leaves.

i just cleaned out the filter sponge recently..it was horrible. i do often WC's, and i feed once every 2-3 days. there is a light source from a window that im sure doesnt help. the point of removing the sand and getting gravel is because 1) whenever ive had gravel, this crap didnt grow so fast, and literally blanket over my substrate. 2) if/when it does grow on gravel, it isnt so obvious.

edit: yes, looks like cyanobacteria.

 

[platytudes]

What about blocking the window lighting? Is that possible? I had the same problem and ended up painting the short end of the aquarium black on the outside (didn't even need to drain it all the way). It considerably helped.

In all fairness, I do believe that silica sand, while it doesn't need to be rinsed aesthetically...probably does need to be rinsed (probably via several sizable water changes) to remove the nutrient content from the rinse water. I have noticed more problems with diatoms from sand than I have from gravel.

However, that is not to say that sand can't work, you just get more headaches during the "adjustment period" as the tank settles in.