Newbie mistake with live sand

G

gopackgo93

New member
I had some low levels of sand then I stupidly added some live sand on top. Well, I had a massive die off. All corals and snails gone. Fish and hermits ok. Before the die off, corals were growing and thriving

3 months later I am still having issues with keeping snails alive and corals. Fish ok

Tank 75 gallons
Led Current usa lighting
20 gallon sump and refugium
10-20% water change weekly

Parameters:
Salinity 1.024
Temp 79-80
Nitrate <10
Phosphate 0
Nitrite 0
Ammonia 0
pH 8.3
Calcium 390

So I'm looking for opinions of what could be happening and what I can do to fix it
 
Please go into details about the issues you are having with the snails and with the corals..
Nothing in your parameters is an issue.

Knowing about the timespan/death details/percentages/types of corals,etc.. may help provide a better guess.
 
Nothing stupid about adding live sand on top of old sand. I've done it without issue. It's a great way to add biodiversity. The answer to your snail die off is likely the hermit crabs. Choose one or the other (Snails are better).

What kind of live sand did you add? How old is your tank? Off the top of my head, maybe adding the sand threw off your parameters enough to upset your corals. Or maybe you introduced a coral pest.

This hobby is all about making mistakes - and learning from them, so don't be too hard on yourself.

Welcome to RC! Lot's of helpful people here. A little more info will help.
 
mcgyvr said:
Please go into details about the issues you are having with the snails and with the corals..
Nothing in your parameters is an issue.

Knowing about the timespan/death details/percentages/types of corals,etc.. may help provide a better guess.
Click to expand...

Sorry, not sure I did this right. With replying. Haha

Anyway. Days after the live sand was placed I started to see the zoas close up, xenia closed, toadstool coral bent over, and the Kenya coral was shrunk.
That week i did a 50% water change.
2 weeks later the corals began to deteriorate and detach.
The snails were popping out of the sand and writhing. The other snails fell off the rock and died within 2-3 weeks as well.
It was at that point that I did another 50% water change. Then I had a nasty clouded water bacteria bloom so I bought a uv sterilizer and cleared it up. Now it's off again.
About 3 weeks about, 2 months after the decimation, I bought 5 snails. All died within a week.
Last week I thought I'd try a simple zoa. The zoa opened twice in a week and has been closed since
 
Newbie mistake with live sand

gopackgo93 said:
Sorry, not sure I did this right. With replying. Haha



Anyway. Days after the live sand was placed I started to see the zoas close up, xenia closed, toadstool coral bent over, and the Kenya coral was shrunk.

That week i did a 50% water change.

2 weeks later the corals began to deteriorate and detach.

The snails were popping out of the sand and writhing. The other snails fell off the rock and died within 2-3 weeks as well.

It was at that point that I did another 50% water change. Then I had a nasty clouded water bacteria bloom so I bought a uv sterilizer and cleared it up. Now it's off again.

About 3 weeks about, 2 months after the decimation, I bought 5 snails. All died within a week.

Last week I thought I'd try a simple zoa. The zoa opened twice in a week and has been closed since
Click to expand...



Are you using RODI water? Are you testing your salt before adding it?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
"Live sand" can most certainly contain quite a bit of "dead/decaying" organic matter and could potentially drive ammonia levels up in a system not capable of mitigating it quickly.

Depending on the amount of sand added I would suspect that a tank of that size shouldn't have an issue with it though.
 
djryan2000 said:
Are you using RODI water? Are you testing your salt before adding it?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

I am not using rodi water. I have a personal well where I'm at. I've had success with just well water. I'm cheap is the problem I'm having with the rodi system haha

What do you mean test your salt?
 
gopackgo93 said:
I am not using rodi water. I have a personal well where I'm at. I've had success with just well water. I'm cheap is the problem I'm having with the rodi system haha



What do you mean test your salt?
Click to expand...



That's most likely the source of your problem. I'd switch to RODI water.

Typically you want to test your salt before you do a water change to make sure the parameters are good. Sometimes you get a bad batch with, for example, crazy high magnesium which can mess up your inverts.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Any chance you are in Wisconsin, we have had a crazy amount of precipitation these last couple years swelling the water table and doing some weird stuff to private wells. I would invest in a rodi I am on well water and would never think of not using one
 
I still find it more than a coincidence that after a water change it sounds like it got worse, much worse.
 
CK00020 said:
Any chance you are in Wisconsin, we have had a crazy amount of precipitation these last couple years swelling the water table and doing some weird stuff to private wells. I would invest in a rodi I am on well water and would never think of not using one
Click to expand...


Fascinating that you brought this up. I live in Washington and when this die off happened, we were in a dryish spell. When that happens we notice more sediment in our water in the house.

Coincidentally I was just in Wisconsin visiting family and going to my first game at Lambeau!
 
When you say you added "live sand," what do you mean? Sand from another running system? Sand from the beach? The bags of "dormant bacteria" sand labeled live sand?

Kevin
 
Water table fluctuations will do that sometimes, you can test your water with a 10 dollar TDS meter from Amazon. You want to be 0 or real close my well water is like 40, our municipal water tests around 150 neither is suitable for a reef.
The Packers had a great year, I sure did not expect them to go as far as they did, a couple more pieces on offense hope u had a good time at Lambeau Go Pack Go
 
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