sand bed

[stuccodude]

i have a 2 inch sand bed and its really a ugly brown against the glass, im sure you know what im talking about, does anyone pull the sand back, clean the glass and replace the sand, just curious if that would stir up some bad bacteria, i only ask cause i have done this about 5 times and all the sudden my yellow tang who survived a cycle cause i didnt know who i thought was bulletproof up and died, everyone else is happy, a few snails have died, thanks for your input

 

[petoonia]

I stir up my sand bed often, mines about 3 inches deep. Do you have a clean up crew for your sand bed?

Have you tested your water? How often do you do water changes?

Tangs can be very sensitive. It could be alot of different reasons that could have caused it's death. I would definitely start by testing your water.

 

[DetectiveTofu]

Occasionally I move the sand away from the glass and scrub off the diatoms and algae and then push the sand back in place. I only do it maybe once a month. I am not so worried about disturbing my sandbed since I don't really have a DSB.

 

[kevin2000]

Thats pretty common .. just try and keep the disturbance of the sand bed to those areas needed to clean the glass. No big deal.

 

[kkyyllee]

tang died of something else most likely, we need more info for that, snails shouldnt be dieing what kind are they, it could be from starvation

 

[stuccodude]

thanks everyone, i tested my water, phosphates have always been a little high .25 but all else is good,water change about 30-40% twice a month, i have about 10 hermits, 10 snails, a sand sifter sea star and a blue star, a flame angel, purple tang,powder blue tang,blue tang, couple firefish, 4 chromis and the deaded blue damsel that my wife bought that is actually very calm oh and 2 clownfish, i did start feeding less to rid the phosphates but the yellow tang was not starved, he ran the tank, im running a remora skimmer, phos reactor, uv and a fuge in the sump and hella flow with 2 tunzi's on top of the flow from the sump, thanks for the input on the sand because it really looks bad and i will continue my once a month cleaning

 

[petoonia]

That's quite a few tangs. Are your nitrates low? Maybe there could have been some aggresion going on, causing the tang to stress out. Was the yellow tang getting picked on?

 

[stuccodude]

to my knowledge he ran the tank but that was my geuss, i do alot of water changes and run a fuge so nitrates are non detectable, my phosephates are a little high