"dirty" live rock and sand??

[yaserrahim]

ok i have nooo idea what's going on with my tank. first the fiji almost died, which i guess we concluded was due to insufficient lighting (BTW a friend of mine managed to recover about quarter - half of it).
then the cyano outbreak, which im going to deal with.
now, i noticed that my sand has "little rocks" ALL over it. it's clean and white like other tanks i have looked at. and my live rock looks like it's covered in a layer of sand type looking "dirt" and has little hairy stringy things coming off of it. they're greenish white in color. i know it's not GHA because it's not nearly as green as GHA.
could this be due to the new pieces of live rock i added? i got them straight out of big al's tank and they were only out of a tank for about an hour and then i put them in mine.
any ideas guys?

here's what my sand looks like, ill get some pics of the rocks too.
does this mean hermits aren't doing their jobs? should i get more?

edit: i'm going to buy 10g of RO/DI water from big al's today, and ill do a 5g change today. and another next week.

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[nissannx]

my guess woul dbe you dont have enough flow or not pointed at the right areas. look sliek you hav edead zones

[fishboy]

yea you proably dont have enought flow at the bottom. Or that would be normal if your tank is new ?.

[yaserrahim]

well if about 3 months old is still considered new, then yes it is.

[saltynewb]

Try to get some flow in the corners, or some creatures to help stir up the sand

[yaserrahim]

well currently i have a koralia 1 and a koralia nano aimed towards the bottom. the nano.. not that great. i WAS going to get a koralia 2 (as redbelly advised) but i realized it's huuuge and would've look horrible in my small tank. the koralia 1 is pretty big itself (in comparison to my tank). i will get another koralia 1 today and tomorrow, hopefully that will help, it has gotten a LITTLE better though, everything looks much "cleaner"

[groupie02]

I guess I have to ask how big your tank is.

[yaserrahim]

20g ..24"l x 14"w x 14"h

[groupie02]

If you find that the koralia 2 is too big, there's always the Tunze but bring out your $$$.
How are your water parameters?  Do you feed your tank at all?  What do you have for a clean up crew? The problem could be flow but it could be a lot of other things.

[pitabread]

well if about 3 months old is still considered new, then yes it is.

Your tank is going to go through all sorts of weird algae blooms for the first 6-12 months.  I wouldn't worry too much about it at this stage.  Just focus on maintaining good water quality with adequate flow and everything else will take care of itself.

[yaserrahim]

If you find that the koralia 2 is too big, there's always the Tunze but bring out your $$$.
How are your water parameters?  Do you feed your tank at all?  What do you have for a clean up crew? The problem could be flow but it could be a lot of other things.

ya i looked up the tunze, they're pretty expensive. i really don't wanna spend that much money on a small powerhead, because i wil be upgrading soon.
my parameters are all good, i feed my fish frozen brine shrimp twice a day (have been wondering if that's too much?) i've been meaning to get more snails for a loooong time, always either forget or just get too lazy. i have 4 turbo snails, 3 nassarius (i think). i see one near the cyano everyday, and i honestly think it ate some of it but it's got a "sideways" pointed shell. 3 blue legged hermits, one emerald, one coral banded shrimp (<- don't think it counts as CUC).

edit/update: well now the sand is not only "dirty" it's going slightly red in the corners, i assume thats cyano too. i'm really trying to avoid using erythromycin as long as i can so any other suggestions would be great.
the thing is how do i get flow into the front corners, i have my powerheads on my side walls. should i put them on the back wall?
tomorrow i'm going to get 3-4 more astrea snails, scarlet hermits if i can find'em or more blue leggeds.

[yaserrahim]

here's a pic

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[kennyman]

well if about 3 months old is still considered new, then yes it is.

yes very much so as pointed out by a few people. Many of us would be addng the second or third fish at this point but you have been fully stocked for a while now. To maintain water quality required for true corals in a nano tank like this you need heavy emphasis on equipment and a vigorous water change schedule.

you know that 1" rule everyone says should be ignored for stocking FW? Multiply it by 4 or 6 for SW. 4 gallons for every 1" of fish. That can be referenced in Dalkin/Sprung "Encyclopedia of the Saltwater Aquarium"

[groupie02]

the red is most likely the start of a cyano outbreak. You need more flow in there and possibly a bigger cleanup crew.

[Severum]

It is going to get a lot dirtier before it gets a lot cleaner. Be prepared for it an don't give up hope. Every salt water enthusiast goes through it.

[yaserrahim]

well i've got 2 koralia 1's going in my tank now, pushing 400gph each, which is 40x the flow which im sure all of you could've figured out.
they cyano on the rocks seems to have cleared up ALOT and i can see it sloooowly clearing up in the sand too. i have been using R/O water for top-off and will do a water change on sunday with R/O water as well, hopefull that will help clear everything up.

im trying to position my powerheads on the sand without having a sandstorm in my tank.