Yellow sand?

[jenreadsalot]

My sand is turning yellow in a couple of spots, I was thinking algae, but could it be something really bad?
Tank and sand has been set up for almost a month, and live rock was added about 2 1/2 weeks ago. Water conditions are perfect except for 1.026 salinity.
Any thoughts, thanks in advance,
Jen

[NaCl_H2O]

Fish pee? Just kidding!

I haven't seen yelow before, but maybe some type of algae? Try a mag glass to see if there is any structure to it? Stir it up a little to see if it reforms overnight? Hopefully someone else can offer more advice.

[MikeDeL]

Dont eat the yellow snow... or in this case yellow sand.LOL
Is it a bright yellow or is it kind of a yellowish brown? Could be a diatom bloom. Not too sure.


Mike

[jenreadsalot]

Don't eat the yellow sand was going to be my title to this post but I did not think anyone would read it then. It is a dark yellow, but I am now seeing some algae on the glass. I am off to research "Diatom Bloom"
Thanks

[Crab Rangoon]

hm, is it in a high flow area? where my current from the powerhead goes across the front of the tank and sand, I am (As of today) getting yellow/brown tint to the surface of my sand *snap* and I was hoping for that reddish/purplish stuff too :P

[TexasState]

What test measurement have you made of your tank to determine that it's perfect. Where are you getting your freshwater from for top-off? The yellow/browness is probably from diatom growth.


Water conditions are perfect except for 1.026 salinity.

[jenreadsalot]

Nitrate, nitrite, ammonia, chlorine, hardness, pH are all ok. I getting water from the machine outside HEB. From what I have readit does appear to be diatom, which I have read is normal for the stage my tank is at. I have decreased the light time and it seems to be decreasing already.

[TexasState]

Start some slow (drop by drop) dose of kalkwasser to your tank.

[Instar]

I'm with MikeDel and TexasState: Diatoms.
If your tank is new, like one month, then TexasState has a good idea. You should be testing Ca because it can go low quickly as the encrusting worms start building skeltons and new coraline gets started. It would be much easier for you to use B-ionic to dose with though. Salinity of 1.026 is not a negative so long as that is correct and you know what it is so you can acclimate new arrivals properly.

[jenreadsalot]

Thanks for the help :D

[matt]

Not to nit-pick, but 1.026 is not a measure of salinity, but specific gravity. So, it's temperature dependent. 1.026 at 84F is a very different salinity than 1.026 at 78F. What I seem to remember is that 1.026 at about 82F is right around a salinity of 35 parts per thousand (ppt) which is about the world-wide average for reef salinity. So unless your tank temp is in the mid-upper 70s, you're not overly saline (is that a word?) But, and this is a big but (haha) unless you have a lab grade glass floating hydrometer, or a decent refractometer, you really have no idea what your specific gravity is, because the swing arm plastic ones are innaccurate.

The advice about checking calcium and alkalinity is good; I wouldn't worry so much about ph because it will fluctuate quite a bit and who knows what "good" ph is other than stable? You might start siphoning out as much of the diatoms as you can. Pretty soon they'll exhaust available silcates in the system and go away, unless your HEB water is loaded with silicates.

[jenreadsalot]

At this point I am not seeing any yellowing of the sand, only green hairy stuff starting to appear on the glass. Today was my planned water change day.
I have a bottle of Kent Liquid Calcium, so I use that or wait till I get a test kit for calcium?
As far as the water goes I have no idea about silicates, it the RO water dispenser outside the store?!?

[MikeDeL]

Dont dose anything until you can test for it. If you dont have a Calcium test kit have the LFS test for it before you dose. That way you know where you are starting from and know how far you have to go.


Mike

[GaryP]

Even the floating hydrometers have to be adjusted for temp. I think the only ones that automatically compensate for temp are some of the better refractometers.

I admit that I use a swing arm hydrometer but I calibrated it against a refractometer and clean it religiously.

Gary

[matt]

Ix-nay on the liquid calcium-ay. That stuff is probably not so good; seems I recall some major ph issues with that product, and it doesn't really do what you need done in terms of calcium and carbonate replacement. Dripping kalkwasser is a great idea; might even help a little with your brand new hair algae bloom. Don't worry about the algae so much, it's a new tank. I'd keep siphoning, get a good calcium and carbonate hardness test kit, and maybe think about a better source for water. I'd be a little suspect of the HEB water, although I used it for a long time myself. I got some pretty high TDS readings on it once (borrowed a TDS meter) and then ordered an R.O./D.I. filter the next day.

Gary; all hydrometers are temp sensitive; that's not what I was referring to. The plastic swingers are notorious for reading low; meaning if Jen is getting a reading of 1.026 on a typical swinging plastic hydrometer, she may actually have a S.G. of more like 1.028. BUT, it's not consistent, so you never know.