pink spots in sand

[mike90]

last night i got home and noticed some light pinkish colors in the sand bed. it wasn't on the surface of the sand but under the bed. anyone have any idea what this is and if it's bad?? i certainly have no clue what it is. my tank has been up for about 2 months now. 90 gal. i only have about 60lbs of live rock and 4 damsels and 2 clowns.

 

[WRASSER]

My guess is dry food that left over from feeding the fish. Try to cut down on the amount of food in the pinch you give them. That way it gives them time to eat the food while it is suspended in the water. :wink:

 

[Sugar Magnolia]

Do you mean under the sand bed where the sand and glass meet or throughtou the sand bed?

 

[mike90]

Do you mean under the sand bed where the sand and glass meet or throughtou the sand bed?

where the sand and glass meet.

any ideas?

 

[mike90]

My guess is dry food that left over from feeding the fish. Try to cut down on the amount of food in the pinch you give them. That way it gives them time to eat the food while it is suspended in the water. :wink:

i really dont feed them all that much as it is. could it be anything else?

 

[Sugar Magnolia]

It's perfectly normal, nothing to worry about.

 

[jandree22]

kind of ugly IMO, but every sand bed develops it eventually

 

[Sugar Magnolia]

I agree Jandree.

 

[mike90]

yea thats it. just not as dark and not as much. is there anything to do to prevent it or get rid of it? will moving the sand around help it?

 

[Anonymous]

this is an issue of having nutrients that get "stuck" in the sand against the glass,and through the wonderful world of optics light is actually able to travel down the front pane of the glass/acrylic similar to a fiberoptic wire and illuminate the area (this type of cyano is photosynthetic.) allowing this particular bacteria to grow. it really isn't IN the sand bed, it's right on the side of it wedged up against the glass.

There really isn't anything you can do with this. If you have a shallow sand bed you could use a plastic spatula and mix it up but it will come back. You could put a piece of black constuction paper along the front of the tank as well, and just cover the front of the sand

 

[mike90]

well i like seeing the sand so ill pass on the construction paper idea. maybe i'll just try to get down there while doing water changes and clean it off. thanks for the explanation though. it makes perfect sense!

 

[Tackett]

I always just dug under my sand and scraped it off.

 

[Anonymous]

I just leave it. It's the best place for a patch of cyano IMO. Better there than next to my corals.