hi I have silca sand in my tank, and my tank is booming with brown algae mybe because I have silca sand which brown algae feed on? and it causing my water to have high nitrate everytime. I ordered pho pads and nitrate pads to lower down my nitrate and was wondering how long it will last for the silca to go away?
silca sand
- Thread starter Richard203
- Start date
What you're experiencing is diatoms. They feed on the silicates in the sand. I don't know for sure how long it will take for it to clear up though. If you're having problems with phosphates and nitrates I'd suggest modifying your water change schedule instead of spending money on pads. I also don't think the sand would cause your nitrate problem.
I change 50% wc each week and when I test it in 2 days it still around 20ppm nitrate dark orange. I brought a phosphate test kit going to test it when it come, what is the avg phosphate for freshwater?
Sometimes tap water can have high nitrates. I don't know what the average phosphate level for freshwater would be.
The sand will not cause high nitrates. Those only can be caused by high source nitrates (from your tap) or your stocking. I get the brown algae in my tanks too. It doesn't matter what substrate. I have bare bottom and sand tanks, and both get the brown algae, even with 90-100% water change every week and nitrates staying below 20ppm at its highest level before water changes. In my son's tank, I added a clown pleco and it eats every last bit of the brown algae.
My larger 220 gallon tank does not have brown algae yet (knock on wood) but I also never have the light on except for a few minutes during feeding each night.
My larger 220 gallon tank does not have brown algae yet (knock on wood) but I also never have the light on except for a few minutes during feeding each night.
I just got one fish in my tank and its a 125gal tank with 2 110hob and fx6 canister can never get nitrate to 5-10ppm
It could be that your tap water has nitrates in it. If that's the case then no matter how many water changes you do you won't be able to get rid of them though.
Yeah like they said, the silica sand breeds diatoms, but it won't cause the nitrate problem. Test your tap water and see what the nitrates are, like fish tank travis said, if you have nitrates in your water then water changes will only get you so far. You could always add some plants to try to lower the level. I have pothos growing and they definitely make a difference
I think I have to wait 3 days to let the chemical in the tap water to evap then test it right? or I can test it right away?