Ways to kill your tank...

[Sk8r]

1. miracle potions for which you have no test kit...you don't know what they're adding, or how much.

2. using copper or other meds in your display tank. Those bacteria you so lovingly nurtured and grew when you cycled? They're the -biotics in ANTIbiotic. It kills them, especially anything labeled 'broad spectrum antibiotic.'

3. messing with your sandbed. Don't clean it. Let it work. It's a layered masterpiece of a natural machine. The last thing you should do is disturb its layers and overturn it. If you feel there's dirt down there, you're overfeeding; and the best cleaner is a sandsifter like a yellow watchman, 1 conch or 5 large nassarius snails per 50 gallons, etc.

4. not as serious a threat, but still unadvisable: putting in specimens with potential toxicity before you have the expertise to keep them from dying on you: these include caulerpa weed, cowfish, and sea cucumbers, sea apples, and such. If it says toxic, keep it out of your tank until you're an expert.

5. overfeeding. If there's bottom muck, likely you're a wee bit rich in the nutrient department. Get more bristleworms.

6. killing off a creature like bristleworms because there's a lot of them: see #5. They don't multiply like that unless there's a food supply. When there isn't, they'll die back naturally.

7. cheap heaters: this is the most dangerous equipment you own. Never skimp on heater quality and don't buy a used heater. They can runaway on you and create fish stew.

8. scented candles, air freshener, and Windex with ammonia...or paint thinner; using these things in the same room with your tank is risky. If you have the 'scent' habit in your house, rethink.

9. small children. This is a case when 'mine' should apply strongly. This tank is 'mine'. The food is 'mine!' Only daddy or mommy feeds the fish. And the fish don't need the tv remote. Or your cereal. Or your blow-bubbles liquid.

10. drunken guests. Pennies are copper. Copper is lethal over time. Your tank will better survive some fool who feeds it a margarita than it will the inexplicable urge to toss pennies into a tank and lose them in the rockwork. For #9 and #10, a good and well-secured lid is a must. If you MUST lid your tank (I have a lid) there are fans which can mount inside to keep your tank cool.

[IanWR]

I have read and enjoyed your helpful and informative posts. I would like to respectfully disagree with #3. While I can understand not wanting to stir up a deep sand bed, I don't think a shallow sand bed, especially one with nassarius and conch and a sand sifting goby, will develope discreet layers of aerobic and anaerobic zones. I don't think I am alone in vacuuming and/or stirring up their sand as part of regular maintainance. I also disagree that finding "any" dirt is a sign of over feeding. Finding a lot of glop is surely a sign of over feeding, but some amount of schmutz doesn't seem out of the ordinary.

[ryeguyy84]

#11-not labeling your containers and accidentally doing a 10% water change with rodi. The first sign is the swirly look of the water as you pour it in, luckily I didn't get to far.

[Sk8r]

A shallow sandbed is ok to clean, I absolutely agree with you in that: thanks to IanWR and Toddrtrex, both of whom point up that this IS an option, and a very useful discussion.
And every tank accumulates what pond folk call mulm...marine dustbunnies....
Please understand: tanks with shallow sandbeds are distinct from tanks with DSBs or deep sandbeds. [Wonder why we don't have SSB's...] Anyway,., people with deep sandbeds simply must not, based on someone's (who has a shallow sandbed) statement that they vacuum their sandbed, decide that they should run do that with their DSB. If the sandbed is quite shallow, yes, it's quite safe to do, because that sandbed is of a certain type. If, on the other hand, it is a deep one, and holding layers of processing in its depths, (4 or so inches) disturbing it and kicking all that crud up into the water can kill your tank.
The problem is that people do frequently hear something regarding a specific kind of tank and take it for universally ok to do. You would be safer, starting out, NOT to be vacuuming your sandbed, whatever sort it is. It's not that dirty yet!

Once you understand the ins and outs of sandbeds, several months on, then you will make an informed decision about what you have, how it's working, and what you should do.

[justthewife]

when you say messing with the sandbed, does that mean substrate as well?

[justthewife]

I mean, I have crushed coral for the substrate to clarify.

[JMorris271]

Where is the line between shallow and deep and appropriately where does the anaerobic gasses developed which can be toxic?

[Sk8r]

I dread to say that the crushed coral will pose a problem down the road: it IS a dirt-holder, and often concretes together and forms a mess. If you've an inch or so of crushed coral, you may need to clean it: the hobby generally quit using that substrate somewhere between 1980 and 2004, and went over to aragonite sand, which makes a nice, manageable sandbed. CC is far better than silicate! but has the two problems named. Back in the 1980's, I had one, and also had a Vortec diatom filter, a kludgy sort of device that you'd gasket with Vaseline and load with diatomaceous white earth and HOPE you got it set to suck rather than blow!---which would within a very few minutes have a completely clouded tank crystal clear. I'd stir it up, have the Vortec ready, and suck the nastiness completely out. In modern terms, I'd suggest if you have a shallow crushed coral bed and choose to do that, you might follow up the vacuuming with a filter sock in the system, to try to get the badness out as fast as possible. [I haven't seen a diatom filter in ages! (and one reason we don't still use them is that it also sucks all the microlife and pods and such out and kills them: modern tanks hope for lots of microlife] ---

What you've got can be worked with. Likely after a year or so, you'll be looking at qt'ing your fishes and corals and either getting the usual 'bigger tank' in a complete new system, or just doing a re-set up involving all the things you've learned. (A setup with the same rock and such often cycles very quickly, often within a week.)

If you choose to remove the CC and install aragonite, do it very slowly if dry sand (washed extremely thoroughly), or if you can pull it all, I'd go with 'live' aragonite and still pull the fish to qt until the system has had its short snit.

For right now, just don't worry much. Most people do a major revision one or two years into the hobby, and that's plenty of time to do something different.

[Sk8r]

The DSB or deep sandbed is about 4 inches or so, some areas shallower, some deeper: that's an average. And anything below the surface is something you don't want kicked up. It regularly releases bubbles of nitrogen gas, which is the finished product it makes of fish poo. The bubble goes to the surface and just goes away.

There's been a lot of word-of-mouth about superfine or sugar sand being the way to go with a DSB. I had it and pulled it, since it 'walked' in strong current, never settled, and killed corals. I do fine with medium-grade aragonite: makes a very nice DSB.

There is also a thing called an RSB, or remote sandbed, for people who for some reason want an extra sandbed or A sandbed if their tank has none... (some coral and some fish-only tanks have none, but this reduces the capacity of the tank to process waste. An RSB provides that.) You just pipe your water to pass through a tank with a DSB. Think of it as a sandy refugium. I have one, in addition to my main one, and it can carry the whole tank or vice versa if I have a problem turn up.

[Pigpen17]

Originally Posted by Sk8r

9. small children. This is a case when 'mine' should apply strongly. This tank is 'mine'. The food is 'mine!' Only daddy or mommy feeds the fish. And the fish don't need the tv remote. Or your cereal. Or your blow-bubbles liquid.

When my daughter was around 5, I had a brackish tank. She used to love throwing her happy meal toys in there. I would come home to find Wilma in her Finstone's car at the bottom of my tank or something.

[Allmost]

Ill add another one :

open window > neighbour using bug spray > dead bugs ending up in tank.

[Stolireef]

#12: Using a hammer or a monkey wrench on your plumbing. (speaking from direct experience, of course). Forcing PVC is a major no no.

[Sk8r]

oooooooooh, yeah. Overtightening a bulkhead, especially on your sump wall or the bottom of your dt, because you have a weeping-type leak. Just wrap a cloth around the thing and put a bowl under it and hope it 'settles' and quits it. Gentlemen, finger-tighten those things, don't use a wrench, and remember that the average woman finger-tightens bulkheads just fine with no leaks.

[justthewife]

Originally Posted by Sk8r

I dread to say that the crushed coral will pose a problem down the road: it IS a dirt-holder, and often concretes together and forms a mess. If you've an inch or so of crushed coral, you may need to clean it: the hobby generally quit using that substrate somewhere between 1980 and 2004, and went over to aragonite sand, which makes a nice, manageable sandbed. CC is far better than silicate! but has the two problems named. Back in the 1980's, I had one, and also had a Vortec diatom filter, a kludgy sort of device that you'd gasket with Vaseline and load with diatomaceous white earth and HOPE you got it set to suck rather than blow!---which would within a very few minutes have a completely clouded tank crystal clear. I'd stir it up, have the Vortec ready, and suck the nastiness completely out. In modern terms, I'd suggest if you have a shallow crushed coral bed and choose to do that, you might follow up the vacuuming with a filter sock in the system, to try to get the badness out as fast as possible. [I haven't seen a diatom filter in ages! (and one reason we don't still use them is that it also sucks all the microlife and pods and such out and kills them: modern tanks hope for lots of microlife] ---

What you've got can be worked with. Likely after a year or so, you'll be looking at qt'ing your fishes and corals and either getting the usual 'bigger tank' in a complete new system, or just doing a re-set up involving all the things you've learned. (A setup with the same rock and such often cycles very quickly, often within a week.)

If you choose to remove the CC and install aragonite, do it very slowly if dry sand (washed extremely thoroughly), or if you can pull it all, I'd go with 'live' aragonite and still pull the fish to qt until the system has had its short snit.

For right now, just don't worry much. Most people do a major revision one or two years into the hobby, and that's plenty of time to do something different.

Oh wow, you just probably cleared up some (still minor) problems I am having recently in the tank as the tank gets older.

[Sk8r]

Sandbeds are an under-discussed issue in tank-keeping. I personally prefer a DSB plus a refugium RSB, with live rock in both. This means I have to get creative about where to put the skimmer, but it gives me a very 'live' waste-processing system, and the fact there are 2 sandbeds means that if one does get kicked up a bit, it's no worry: the other adds enough processing power to keep the tank safe. Other hobbyists are zealous about shallow sandbeds, which they clean on a regular basis---and still others go sandless entirely, imitating the waters of the deep reef, where fish and corals live in the nooks and crannies of a rock face---the latter sort sometimes does have an RSB, and generally has a very high flow, if not a surge-type wavemaker (intermittent pulses, like the surf). All are an ok way to do things and all work if you do them right. My own tank never takes intervention except for water changes and adding more ro/di, kind of a lazy man's way of reefing. I also don't overload it with large hungry predators. By body weight, half my fish eat algae or scavenge.

[ca1ore]

I've always been a 'blind' doser, but have been thinking lately that with a calcium reactor and regular water changes it is unecessary.

[MinnFish]

Perfume is also a no no. Hard to explain to the wifey. Squirt, squirt on the way out the door. Drives me crazy. I love she smell good, but my tankmates don't. update it just happen. I kid you not.

[Stolireef]

I came up with another one.

13. Chasing a single parameter. eg. I want my Ca at 450. So I dose the heck out of Ca and then find that my kH is out of whack. So, now I does kH and that ends up precipitating out of solution turning my sand bed to concrete. Adjust levels in very small increments and keep your eyes on all of the other levels when making changes.

[Sk8r]

AND!!!!!!!!!!! check the expiration date on your tests. If they don't have one, buy a brand that does. I use Salifert, myself.

[GT350pwns]

Need to stop cleaning the first bit of my DSB. Eek!

Is it normal for it to have a bit of build up along the glass in the first inch or so of the DSB? I've been toying around with the idea of getting a conch and some more nassarius snails. Hermits have taken a liking to my snails and there is a fulgida worm on the loose.

[Sk8r]

Hermits are very specific about which shells they will go for. Try changing to small ceriths: they rarely get picked on. And supply them empty shells. Various suppliers will sell them.

Don't worry too much about the worm. I've had them. No harm that I ever found.

Try this: get a broad black ribbon or paper strip and cover that edge of your sand. If you make it nice, you can leave it that way; but even a week will probably improve the look. That's usually cyano on that edge, and if it doesn't have light, it dies.

[Pigpen17]

Originally Posted by Sk8r

Hermits are very specific about which shells they will go for. Try changing to small ceriths: they rarely get picked on. And supply them empty shells. Various suppliers will sell them.

Don't worry too much about the worm. I've had them. No harm that I ever found.

Try this: get a broad black ribbon or paper strip and cover that edge of your sand. If you make it nice, you can leave it that way; but even a week will probably improve the look. That's usually cyano on that edge, and if it doesn't have light, it dies.

I bought some snails from my LFS, I think they are Nerite snails. My hermits never looked at them twice. Just added some large Ceriths and it was slaughter city. I have two hermits with new shells so far. They do leave my Dwarfs alone.

[GT350pwns]

Originally Posted by Sk8r

Hermits are very specific about which shells they will go for. Try changing to small ceriths: they rarely get picked on. And supply them empty shells. Various suppliers will sell them.

Don't worry too much about the worm. I've had them. No harm that I ever found.

Try this: get a broad black ribbon or paper strip and cover that edge of your sand. If you make it nice, you can leave it that way; but even a week will probably improve the look. That's usually cyano on that edge, and if it doesn't have light, it dies.

Thanks, sk8r.

I have a few empty shells (probably ~20 of various sizes for 11 hermits). But, they've taken to going after the nerites. Think it is a sport to them; they will kill, eat, and leave the shell. Really debating getting rid of a few of them and just adding more snails. I enjoy watching them, but they are starting to become heathens.

[Sk8r]

Nerites are popular shells.
Scarlets are well-behaved crabs. Blue-legs. Etc. I've had both snails and mini-hermits for years and honestly can't explain why some people's hermits eat their snails. Mine just don't and never have, in decades in this hobby. I do put in spares.

[GT350pwns]

Might nix the common hermits and opt for scarlets, than. I will have to keep the blue leg that hitch hiked with my snail order from reefcleaners. He REALLY wanted to be there lol.