Sand Stirring Nightmare!

[neoh74]

So yesterday i decided to stir up the sand as it was showing some green and red algae growth. I have a ton of livestock in the live sand. Stirred up a ton of detritus and gas bubbles. Went to the movies and came back to my two clown fish barely swimming, laying on the sand and clinging over by the overflow. Something was definitely wrong. Luckily this morning they are completely fine but I think I may have stirred up a little too much. Wont be doing that again!
:headwally:

 

[Ron Reefman]

You have "a ton of livestock in the sand" yet the sand was full of detritus that was decomposing and creating gas bubbles? Somehow those two points don't jive.

Tell us about the livestock in the sand.
Do you have a lot of fish?

I hesitate to make any recommendation given a very sketchy understanding of exactly what's going on. But I think you need to stir up the sand bed a little bit every day, maybe even twice a day. You need to get the sand bed cleaned out, but don't do it such that you make the environment in the tank uninhabitable. Think of it as you never dust anything in the house for years and then one day you set up a fan and start dusting everything. It wouldn't take long before you couldn't breath. But if you did a little bit every day, eventually you'd get it done and survive!

Good luck.

 

[LQT]

How deep your sandbed?

 

[AlSimmons]

So yesterday i decided to stir up the sand as it was showing some green and red algae growth. I have a ton of livestock in the live sand. Stirred up a ton of detritus and gas bubbles. Went to the movies and came back to my two clown fish barely swimming, laying on the sand and clinging over by the overflow. Something was definitely wrong. Luckily this morning they are completely fine but I think I may have stirred up a little too much. Wont be doing that again!
:headwally:

Yeah, stirring up a sand bed on a whim is definitely not the safest thing to do. If your going to stir it up you might as do it on a regular basis instead. (from the beginning) I wonder if you hit a pocket of Hydrogen Sulfide?

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-12/rhf/index.php

 

[billdogg]

My suggestion would be to either clean your sand a little with every water change or to leave it alone. I siphon ~1/3 of the sand bed every water change to keep it from accumulating too much gunk.

Just stirring it to be stirring it is a great way to quickly poison the entire system, especially if it is from a long established system.

 

[protie]

...Think of it as you never dust anything in the house for years and then one day you set up a fan and start dusting everything. It wouldn't take long before you couldn't breath. But if you did a little bit every day, eventually you'd get it done and survive!

Good luck.

Thanks for this comment. Never thought about it this way and is why I will start doing what you recommend daily.

 

[JDWells]

Inside the sand is a scary place for sure. Either keep it cleaned consistently or never ever touch it seems to be the way most people do it. I prefer to siphon mine pretty regularly.

 

[Frank H]

Neoh, curious, is your sand fine or a bigger grain sand?

 

[Philly777]

Depending on your livestock, a pistol shrimp can naturally turn a lot of sand in those dead zones around and under rocks. I don't think they ever stop. Of course you need a stable structure so nothing topples, but man they work hard!