Disturbing sandbed question

[Chheng86]

I have a 120g aquarium with a 100g sump.

I recently acquired a 5g refugium that came as a package deal. I've been growing some mangroves for a while so I decided to put the mangroves in the refugium sandbed to help it grow rather than suspending it in my sump. The refugium was used by the last owner for a while on his 90g aquarium, but it's been sitting idle for about 3 weeks now. The other week I added some water to it so it wouldn't completely dry up.

Now without thinking I dug up the sandbed and placed my mangroves inside and ran it into my setup, some of the sand and water from the refugium back siphoned into my sump as I was setting it up and then got into my display. I've been reading that disturbing the sandbed can cause the release of unwanted phosphates, hydrogen sulfide and such.

Since the refugium is so small do you think that by me doing this it will cause a lot of problems? The sand is 4" in the refugium.

 

[tmz]

I think using old used dried out sand can cause the problems noted. I'd personally replace it .

 

[Mpup]

Rinse or replace...

 

[Chheng86]

Thanks for the feedback, I am going to replace the sand. I only had it running for about 10 mins, before stopping it completely. As mentioned during this time some of the sand got into my sump and then into my display, as well I had disturbed the sandbed a lot. Do you think that within that period it was enough to cause damage to my main tank?

 

[coralsnaked]

Fire up the reactors GFO and carbon

 

[tzylak]

Sniff test is a reliable way to gauge the situation. You would know about dangerous gasses (rotten egg smell) way before it became dangerous to your fish.
OTOH when the gasses are very powerful be aware that your nose can get desensitized fast and not sense it at all anymore.
I have a hunch that everything in your tank is ok as you'd mention something about the stench by now.

 

[Chheng86]

Thanks for the advice. I'll run the reactors as well as try to sniff test.

 

[tmz]

Thanks for the feedback, I am going to replace the sand. I only had it running for about 10 mins, before stopping it completely. As mentioned during this time some of the sand got into my sump and then into my display, as well I had disturbed the sandbed a lot. Do you think that within that period it was enough to cause damage to my main tank?

Probably not.H2S would oxidize and disappear in a couple of hours once it hity an oxygenated environment. Organics in the sand would take longer than 10mins to degrade.

 

[SecretiveFish]

It is surprising how many not so helpful nutrients can be trapped in a sand bed... I would also rinse or replace...

 

[Teenreefer15]

rinse or replace it.

 

[tmz]

Things get bound up to organics and/or precipitants and settle . When the sand bed becomes anoxic in stagnant water or dries organisms die and other reactions break things loose and/produce some toxins ;so , you don't really know what you'll get from reusing old sand. The energy from bound elements is still there and unlikely to remain in useful benign form outside of the environs of a reef tank with good parameters.