I have 30lbs of live sand, and 10lbs of dried live rock in my 50 gallon saltwater aquarium. The lighting is 314 watts. I only have one 250 GPH power head my other broke. The rock started turning green and It has been spreading and getting darker. Then i noticed 1 spot of green in the sand and now 2 spots of green in the sand bed.Its a bright neon green like from the joker in batman. I am cycling the tank now with just live sand, rock, i added that bacteria in a bottle, and 2 pre-cooked cocktail shrimps. It has been up and running for 2 weeks now with no spike in ammonia. So what should i do about the green in the sand and on the rock? Should i gravel vac the sand bed, or wipe off the rock or mix up the sand bed. And is pre cooked shrimp good to cycle a tank or do i need the raw shrimp?
You need an ammonia source. You need more water movement. for a 50 gallon tank you also need 50 lbs of live rock. NOT dead rock. The good news is that you can go get 1 small piece of live rock and it will seed your dead rock. It will also cycle your tank much quicker than the so called live sand or the bacteria in a bottle. Yes, wipe off the rock. Turn off the power head wipe off the rock, wait for the algae to settle then vacuum the sand bed. The quickest and easiest way to solve the cycle problem is to just go get a small piece of live rock about 2 lbs of rock will work well. Better if you can find one piece that size. Do not go much smaller or it will not have much de nitrifying bacteria.
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You do NOT need 3 inches of sand. Deep sand beds or DSBs are NOT for beginners. They require a fair bit of research and maintenance. You also need to add some mature aged sand from another tank to provide microfauna that is required to keep the sand moving. You also need the sand to be at least 4 inches of sand 5 inches being better. Nitrate removing bacteria requires an oxygen free zone. Do you really think oxygen can not get to sand 3 inches down? especially with a clean up crew ?
Another wifes tale in the hobby, clean up crews. Ask any EXPERIENCED reefer about cleanup crews. They do NOT use them with coral. They do not do much in a reef tank and are more trouble than they are worth. They also add to the bio load of the tank. and the wrong kind of animals will eat every smaller critter in the tank, which is needed food for the sand bed as well as fish and coral.
Check my tank. I have a handful of snails and a couple of cleaner shrimp. Thats it for cleanup.
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Whenever listening to advice check the results of the advice before making a decision.
I don't know alot about algae types but I will say Tabitha is rather spot on. Your feeding your tank nitrates with nothing to control them. This so gonna cause algae problems.
You need about 75 lb of Live rock. You also need a sand bed that is 3 "deep or more. The big purpose here is to control nitrates. If your sand is not deep enough then it will do nothing to reduce nitrate. I ' d say you need a clean-up crew to handle algae along with reducing the nitrates you are adding. Problem is, you don't even have a sutable tank for a clean-up crew with the lack of sand and rock.
My 36 gallon is still in the works. First things I got for it were 60 lb of sand and 50 lb of live rock.
It is your current. This algae thrives in low current tanks with lots of nutrients (nitrate mostly) .
With live rock and live sand your tank is often already cycled, especially if you used a bacto-booster product. The dry rock won't cut it, though, and 10 pounds is pathetically limited in a 50 gallon tank unless you are doing a deep sand bed, which again you are obviously not doing. With your current set up you will not be able to manage nitrates and wil be stuck doing tons of expensive water changes to keep the nitrates low.
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Test your nitrates, I bet you have some, and since you never say ammonia, you are basically cycled but still have a way to go before fish. Add all rock or sand in before you get any fish. Increase that current to at least 4x your current flow rate before fish.
