rtk wrote:

Thank you! I do have a variety of snails. I put a new green chromis in
and never saw him again, so I might have that little source. I'll stick
a brush down the narrow tube of the skimmer and see if that's messed up.
I reduced the lights to 6 hours a day and will them back up when things
calm down. I'm also siphoning up the ugly ickies every other day. Now
I'll look for a conch.

rtk

what type of snails? Turbo's and astreas don't do much for the sand.
Cerith and Nassariuses do a good job of eating stuff off (and slightly
under) the sand.

Problem with conchs is of course thay can get quite big. But they eat
the crap up faster than snails, in my experience. (which is somewhat
limited)

By the "narrow tube" of the skimmer... you mentioned you had an aqua c
remora I think? Do you mean the "spray injection" tube? You might check
that, but what I meant is is there crap growing on the inside of the
reaction chamber and or intake tube? Do you have the preskimmer/baffle
thingy that they sell as an option for the remora's? If not, and if
there is crap growing inside the reaction chamber, it COULD be that your
skimmer is putting out water with more dissolved organics in it than the
water that is going INTO it.