does oolitic sand really work?

[Wiz]

I knew the black spots were the bad stuff. Lol now i know exactly what it is. Thanks. And the microfauna can and should disapate any bad areas. Asuming the bed is healthy.Correct?

Any trapped gas you can see is not toxic. It is either nitrogen (most likely) or just air.

Hydrogen sulfide that may be produced if a lot of organic matter gets buried is not going to be present in the gas phase, but will show as black precipitated metal sulfides.

 

[Naiad]

Yes if your bed is healthy the little guys should diffuse everything. The danger is only if the bed is Not working and you somehow release a lot of that stored organic matter all at once. I just feel you should be prepared for the worst that way if it does happen it is not as bad.

 

[Windy]

My fuge is built based on his article. From the grain size to depth. Exactly. Such a great article. :) I used a bag of fresh live sand, an inch layer on top of my old fuge sand which had a slightly bigger grain size and was full of critters, some bristle worms from a forum member and two orders of pods from different vendors. As well as multiple macros from various venders which I'm sure brought stuff in. So far I've recorded over 9 types of worms and 10+ types of "bugs" as well as mini chitons, snails, limpets, micro britles etc... defanitly full of life. Although I'm always looking for more ways to seed it. So if you know any, don't be shy :)

Inland Aquatics in Indiana and the Indio Pacific Sea Farms in Hawaii have great sand bed microfauna kits.

 

[Windy]

Yes if your bed is healthy the little guys should diffuse everything. The danger is only if the bed is Not working and you somehow release a lot of that stored organic matter all at once. I just feel you should be prepared for the worst that way if it does happen it is not as bad.

Why are you so worried about a possibility that as far as I know, has never happened. Do you have some examples or is this just your idea?

 

[Naiad]

Inland Aquatics in Indiana and the Indio Pacific Sea Farms in Hawaii have great sand bed microfauna kits.

My ipsf package should arrive Thursday [emoji1]

 

[Windy]

My ipsf package should arrive Thursday [emoji1]

They ship in some cases in wet paper, due to the high shipping costs out of Hawaii. I have not had problems, but it is unusual. It worked for me.

 

[reefsaver]

r
Where do you get your information. I have run DSB's since the '90s. You have to have sand stirrers. In fact Shimek talks about as many as 40,000 micro fauna per cubic foot of sand. This turns the sand over and helps get water movement. I have disturbed DSBs many times, moved them and re-set them up. What is so dangerous about them?
I am not advocating DSB's but if you don't know what you are talking about, your advice may be harmful.

I agree with this, as I also have disturbed DSB's similarly. During a water change I use the siphon to clean the substrate and go deep to pick up as much substrate as I can, into the DSB. I tumble the substrate free of debris in the syphon and relocate it, evening out and aqua-scaping the substrate on the fly. The only issue I see with this is you could be pulling out too much good stuff while preventing the bad.