Before we screw something up...

[Mindscry]

We have a 55 gallon reef tank... one Six Line Wrasse, two Peppermint Shrimp, 10 or so Dwarf Blue Leg crabs, a tiny Lettuce Nudibranch, 3 Nasarius snails, just over a dozen small glass cleaning snails (I can't remember what they're called, but the only thing they do more than lay eggs is clean the glass)... we have a toadstool soft coral and a Xenia all sitting happily on 40 or so pounds of your nicer live rock and about 2.5" of Bahamas Oolite (C-ARAG-L-BO).

All the levels seem fine. My wife checks them way more often than she probably needs to.

I have *lots* of stuff growing on the sand. Green algaes (plural), red algae... nothing seems to be bad, but my wife doesn't like it, so it needs mowed. We bought the Nudibranch thinking it would take care of some of it, but the sand continues to support life which my wife is now seeking to irradicate.

Someone at (some other chain of stores that I don't trust) told her to buy a gravel vac and vacuum the Oolite. This seems like a very bad idea and goes against most of the little that I've read about the sand. Until the tank is old enough to support a Goby, what do you guys suggest we do for the gravel? My suggestion was "leave it alone," but she doesn't like that :mad:

Thanks in advance for entertaining the first of many dumb questions. :cool:

[EDIT] I will post a pic when I get home...

[emw23817]

I am Mindscry's wife. Here is the picture of the tank:

http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i112/Mindscry/IMG_3546.jpg

[Mindscry]

As you can see, I don't think there's anything wrong with the tank... we started it in April, and I think this is pretty normal. I just want someone who knows more than I do to tell her not to stir up the Oolite with a gravel vac :)

[slemaster36]

I've found that a diamond goby works well. If you have a six line wrasse then you should be ok for the goby as long as nitrite and nitrate levels are not sky high. I had this problem in my daughters 14 gal. tank and less than 24 hrs after putting the diamond goby in the problem was gone. Hope this helps.

[Kumquat]

You are having a cynobacteria (red slime) problem. Although it is not harmful to the tank - it is a nuisance. Check your phosphate level - I am guessing that it is high. Way to irradicate includes: water change using RO/DI water, phosphae removal resin, or chemical.

[Mindscry]

You are having a cynobacteria (red slime) problem. Although it is not harmful to the tank - it is a nuisance. Check your phosphate level - I am guessing that it is high. Way to irradicate includes: water change using RO/DI water, phosphae removal resin, or chemical.

Apparently, the tank was cycling up more slowly than we'd anticipated. We'll be adding a Diamond after everything evens out... we added the 6LW on accident, thinking that the relatively new tank had cycled when it actually hadn't. The algae (which appears red in the picture unfortunately due to "Underwater" color correction, but is actually 100% brown) went away mostly on its own accord. Decent ammonia spike afterwards, but nothing died and a couple 20% water changes seem to have smoothed everything out.

We both appreciate all the help from everyone in both forums, as well as the staff at PA :) Having been pointed in the right direction a few times now, we're enjoying the hobby a bit more.

Off to modify my sump with the cool ideas I got from PA today.