Is this just a part of the ugly stage?

[paul.o]

Tank been up and running about 4 months, not sure if I need to do anything about this or just leave it to run it's course, seems to be in the low flow area's but with it being a red sea max nano it's difficult to get the powerhead angled to get more flow but not create a sand storm, plus the Ric and Hammer is happy as it is.
There are diatoms which is coating the glass more or less daily which I not concerned about but what about the algae on the sand?
Last set of tests were - KH- 11.2, CA- 400, MG- 1270, PO4- 0.13, NO3- 25 PO4 might be lower as I'm using salifert tests so not good at very low levels.

 

[DDenny]

Could be diatoms or the start of Dino’s. Only way to tell it to pull out some water with the brown stuff and look under microscope

 

[gbroadbridge]

Tank been up and running about 4 months, not sure if I need to do anything about this or just leave it to run it's course, seems to be in the low flow area's but with it being a red sea max nano it's difficult to get the powerhead angled to get more flow but not create a sand storm, plus the Ric and Hammer is happy as it is.
There are diatoms which is coating the glass more or less daily which I not concerned about but what about the algae on the sand?
Last set of tests were - KH- 11.2, CA- 400, MG- 1270, PO4- 0.13, NO3- 25 PO4 might be lower as I'm using salifert tests so not good at very low levels.

What animals do you have cleaning the sand?

 

[paul.o]

What animals do you have cleaning the sand?

nothing really, there are a couple of turbo snails mainly on the rock and glass, and about 3 hermits

 

[gbroadbridge]

nothing really, there are a couple of turbo snails mainly on the rock and glass, and about 3 hermits

Well, I'd add a strombus snail (conch) and problem solved.

 

[DDenny]

While yes the strombus snails will stir the sand they eat detritus and un-eaten foods fed to fish and other tank mates.