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#1 |
Registered Member
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: In the shadow of the MOUSE.
Posts: 189
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Ugly Sand Bed
My sand bed has gone anaerobic in biblical proportions for some reason. It has brown areas (diatoms?) and black areas. I suspect that it is producing quite a bit of hydrogen sulfide because my new white urchins are not doing too well and one of my black urchins dropped some spines after sitting over a black area.
Any ideas what causes this and what to do? (I have an algae turf scrubber so I don't really need a deep sand bed.) |
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#2 |
Registered Member
Join Date: Sep 2007
Location: Charlotte, NC
Posts: 4,689
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Replace the sand bed (slowly a little per day) and go with a shallow sand bed (3" or less) that way you can stir it up when it gets nasty. Of course you won't be able to have the denitrification benefits of a DSB, but I think the trade-off is worth it.
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Ryan |
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#3 |
Registered Member
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: In the shadow of the MOUSE.
Posts: 189
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Here's a picture of what I'm talking about...
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#4 |
Registered Member
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: Colorado
Posts: 1,955
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lack of flow on the sand for one
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cheers, jent d-_-b Current Tank Info: 66gal = 32x24x20 |
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#5 |
Registered Member
Join Date: Jun 2009
Location: nc
Posts: 141
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diamond gobies or other sifting gobies for that matter wil help somewhat with this problem but with old sand i would watch the water params cause they tend to make a mess of things pretty quick
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#6 |
Registered Member
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: In the shadow of the MOUSE.
Posts: 189
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Thanks everybody for the input.
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