??? on sand

[lowrider]

about a 2 week or so ago i put dry sand and water in my new tank .and then i took some sand from my other tank and mixed it up ok when i look at it today i seen micro bubbles all over the place thought i was sucking air in my return but then i seen the sand is covered in them is this norm ty for any info

[Neuticle]

There are bacterial reactions taking place in the sand, so yes it's normal. But the fact that they are sticking makes me think you don't have enough flow low in your tank, you may be about to have a cyano outbreak.

[Amphiprion]

Agreed. More than likely, since they are on exposed surfaces, they are oxygen bubbles resulting from a film of cyanobacteria, algae, or something else photosynthetic (the former being the most likely).

[lowrider]

cyanobacteria ok i have a red tank is their a easy way to get rid of this stuff? i seen a site and it said to do water changes but i dont think that by it self will work am i wrong?

[Amphiprion]

There are several things you can and should try. The first is to make sure the affected areas have enough water circulation--this prevents settling and therefore prevents a substrate-level source of nutrients for the cyanobacteria. A reduction in the amount that you feed can help. Water changes can help quite a bit, though they can be inefficient, requiring a lot of water, work, etc. Running some ferric oxide hydroxide based phosphate remover can help a lot, as well. A refugium with healthily growing macroalgae (I recommend Chaetomorpha) also helps quite a bit. A combination of these methods tends to work the best, though. Lastly, and as a final effort if all else fails (you'll have to give the above methods time, though), you can use one of the proprietary "red slime remover" products, but I don't usually recommend it.

[Neuticle]

^+1, exactly what I would say.

It's usually pretty easy to siphon out with airhose, stay on top of it or it will go crazy. It's just part of having a new tank (usually).