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I have a 10g on the bottom of a dual tank stand. It's a grow-out tank for some shellies, no plants, ~1" sand substrate, the lighting is an Eclipse 'Natural Daylight F15T8'. Tank light is on ~10 hours a day.

Algae on the shells I don't have a problems with, but I really really don't like the algae on the sand It clumps with the sand and won't gravel vac so to remove it I have to do so by hand.

Is there any way to get rid of it and/or prevent it from happening again in the future?

Thanks

edit: The tank above it is a 10g with shellies as well but with a gravel substrate. Same algae on the shells but none on the gravel.

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There is water at the bottom of the ocean

If you can arrange some cover for them , and if the shellies dont eat them ,algae shrimp would probably shift that. Failing that another species of cichlid that turns the sand over a lot would stop it from establishing itself, but youd have to be careful for size or the shellies might end up disappearing . I guess the only other option aside from totally depriving the algae of nutrients with plants,( which obviously will ruin the "all shell" look ) or using chemicals ,is to keep stirring the sand daily, but this might really annoy the fish.

Maybe you can add some Snails, so they will turn the sand & don't get compact & the Algae don't grow. You can also light the tank for less hours & this will prevent Algae growth.


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Adding plants to "outcompete" algae of nutrients is not exactly the way things work, though it is admittedly a popular opinion. Most planted tanks have more than enough respective values of macronutrients for any such algae to sustain itself on. However, even in unplanted aquascapes, algae seems to only get started when such nutrients are out of balance.

In any case, not to strike any offense, but the mess seen on your sand appears to be cyano, and generally results out-of-whack phosphates and nitrates (not necessarily high levels of either--just not properly balanced). Best thing to do is to take apart the tank, scrub and bleach the hell out of everything, then begin anew. Otherwise, the stuff will keep coming back, almost regardles of any and all actions you take attempting to eradicate it. Even erythro is hardly a guarentee.

Yeah, I should have clarified really, I should have said that often by looking after the plants you generally balance the nutrients correctly, thus increasing plant uptake in addition to making conditions annoying to algae.

I stand humbly corrected.

By way of a small cheat I also use bulbs ( german manufactured " special -plant" bulbs - lol do they descibe everything in germany as special? ) said to limit the growth of algae by precisely providing frequecies that plants use and algae wont, Im not sure how true it is, or how well they work, but my tanks dont seem to produce much algae. But then I use water balancers , fertilisers, LOTS of plants , and algae eaters too. Downside is though , if you like the very blue look of some display tanks these might not be for you, they tend to make the tank look greeny yellow in hue, a bit of amazonian if you like. Personally I like it.

So what if im overkill?

No, I completely agree with the fact that plants will help rid one's tank of algae. That is not at all debate-worthy; I was merely saying that the reasoning behind it is not due ot nutreitn starvation.