Re-aquascaping nightmare!!!!!! Nearly killed all my fish!!!!!

[Lasse]

Did you smell rotten eggs?

Sincerely Lasse

 

[Eleni18]

Did you smell rotten eggs?

Sincerely Lasse

No...just really foul smelling blackish filth but not rotten eggs. Would that be hydrogen sulphur?

 

[Paul B]

Sorry to hear this. This is why I run a reverse Undergravel filter, so I never have that problem. Sand traps all that gook and stays there until you stir it up. There is little oxygen under there causing that type of bacteria to grow.
I removed my gravel when I moved last year and after it had been un moved for probably 25 years, there was no problem.
But my RUGF pushes oxygen to the bottom of the tank.
People with sand beds need to be concerned about this.

 

[Lasse]

Hydrogen sulphide smells like rotten eggs or like it smells if you opens the sink's water trap. If you did not get that smell - the problem was probably a combination of hydrogen sulphide and oxygen deficiency. Hydrogen sulphide rapidly oxidized by oxygen until the oxygen is zero. Probably was your two fishes hit by hydrogen sulphide before the oxygen in your water made it non toxic. Your following actions probably guaranteed enough oxygen to oxidize any remaining hydrogen sulfide - only two fishes get affected.

Yes - it is true that you should be careful with sand - and it is a very good thing to have a mixed and large CUC if you have sands. Do not forget hermits and sea cucumbers

Sincerely Lasse

 

[Eleni18]

Update-2 days later
Hello again and thank you for all your valuable input so far. Yesterday, one day after the near catastrophe caused on Thursday, everything seemed well. I did all my water tests and all parameters were fine. The water was still not crystal clear, a little cloudy and full of small bubbles travelling between between the powerheads and skimmer. But the fish all seemed fine, swimming hapilly around and quite alert. Today however, the blue tang is not that well again. It does not swim and keeps hiding in a cave between the rocks on the bottom of the tank, barely moving its tail. It came out briefly a while ago, and then went back in again. Water parameters are OK, all the other fish are fine and the water is still full of tiny bubbles. I replaced the carbon in the media chamber...what else can I do?

 

[ScottB]

Virtually all of us with a sand bed are going to face this at some point -- at least those with larger reef systems where the fish cannot be removed beforehand.

Would a strong airstone help to oxygenate the water and reduce stress to fish?

I do what I can to stir (with a powerhead and hose) at each WC, but I know there are pockets I am not reaching.

Hope your blue pulls through. My oldest fish is a blue; she has survived A LOT.

 

[Lasse]

Look very careful for tiny bubbles IN the fish - you will often them at the base of the dorsal fin - at the thin membrane between the fin rays and on the upper part of the skull. They are on the inside - not on the outside. Is the tiny bubbles coming from the skimmer or the power head?

Sincerely Lasse

 

[Eleni18]

Look very careful for tiny bubbles IN the fish - you will often them at the base of the dorsal fin - at the thin membrane between the fin rays and on the upper part of the skull. They are on the inside - not on the outside. Is the tiny bubbles coming from the skimmer or the power head?

Sincerely Lasse

Thank you. No bubbles on the fish. I THINK the bubbles are coming from the skimmer but I cannot be sure because the powerheads blow them all over. They are closer to the middle and towards top of tank. The bottom seems quite clear. The tang is swimming again now, looking a little disorientated still...The water is now clearing well with the new carbon

 

[Lasse]

Stop the power head first - still bubbles - skimmer responsible - no bubbles - power head responsible. Why its important to know which source you have for the bubbles is tricky to explain but if it is the power head - place it in a way that can´t suck in air. For the skimmer - just limit the air intake for a while (or the flow)

Sincerely Lasse

 

[brandon429]

Eleni

Based on what you saw when arranging the tank, if you were to reach in and grab a massive handful of sand and drop it down, would that make it cloud all over again? I wouldn’t do it since it’s not worth more stress on recovering fish + epoxy work curing but in general was the sandbed alone able to produce a cloud?

If so, I think we should consider the big job of removing the sand altogether, to prevent having to walk on eggshells with it, or if not removal we can look at a total rinse cleaning of the current sand where disturbing it looks like snow globe grains that fall down cleanly. We have ways of doing this without cycling the tank.

Ways to slow, stop new waste incursion into the bed aren’t hard but we need to make it cloudless with hard work first.

after fish heal up, to stop future risk we should redesign that sandbed in my opinion and it’s a big cleaning job. Now that rocks are set in place/aware of the inconvenience

But this could be building the structure on a questionable foundation, at least you don’t have corals stacked and locked too. Consider now ———> through year 2025

Can you see times where access might be required or happen without your permission in the future, right now seems like the time to change the base design of the tank in expectation of that bed getting kicked up somehow

 

[Eleni18]

Eleni

Based on what you saw when arranging the tank, if you were to reach in and grab a massive handful of sand and drop it down, would that make it cloud all over again? I wouldn’t do it since it’s not worth more stress on recovering fish + epoxy work curing but in general was the sandbed alone able to produce a cloud?

If so, I think we should consider the big job of removing the sand altogether, to prevent having to walk on eggshells with it, or if not removal we can look at a total rinse cleaning of the current sand where disturbing it looks like snow globe grains that fall down cleanly. We have ways of doing this without cycling the tank.

Ways to slow, stop new waste incursion into the bed aren’t hard but we need to make it cloudless with hard work first.

after fish heal up, to stop future risk we should redesign that sandbed in my opinion and it’s a big cleaning job. Now that rocks are set in place/aware of the inconvenience

But this could be building the structure on a questionable foundation, at least you don’t have corals stacked and locked too. Consider now ———> through year 2025

Can you see times where access might be required or happen without your permission in the future, right now seems like the time to change the base design of the tank in expectation of that bed getting kicked up somehow

In general, picking up sand and dropping it down does not produce a massive amount of cloud...some yes, but only locally. The real massive black clouds happened when I moved the rocks. I have now started cleaning up the sand small bit by small bit. Stirring a very small area of sand and siphoning off....

 

[Lasse]

In general, picking up sand and dropping it down does not produce a massive amount of cloud...some yes, but only locally. The real massive black clouds happened when I moved the rocks. I have now started cleaning up the sand small bit by small bit. Stirring a very small area of sand and siphoning off....

Its a good strategy but you should complete this with a CUC with focus on organisms taking food from the sand. With the right crew - they will do your work and they are more interesting to look at than a bottle of peroxide

Sincerely Lasse

 

[brandon429]

What aspect in the rocks makes cloud, curious. If you pick up a test rock section and shake it mid tank now, does that produce clouding enough to wreck the system

Can you show a pic of the front of the tank in full where it shows the sand and water and rocks top to bottom, helps see standout details if any. Just a standard full tank shot standing back

Is the rock loaded with castings and detritus waste from the tank?

 

[Eleni18]

Its a good strategy but you should complete this with a CUC with focus on organisms taking food from the sand. With the right crew - they will do your work and they are more interesting to look at than a bottle of peroxide

Sincerely Lasse

Thanks, yes. I recently read on cleaning crew...no idea they existed before. For the time being I have four snails and I have ordered two emerald crabs, arriving tomorrow. What else would you suggest that will not munch on corals?

 

[Eleni18]

Stop the power head first - still bubbles - skimmer responsible - no bubbles - power head responsible. Why its important to know which source you have for the bubbles is tricky to explain but if it is the power head - place it in a way that can´t suck in air. For the skimmer - just limit the air intake for a while (or the flow)

Sincerely Lasse

Hi again. I am sure the tiny bubbles are coming from the skimmer. There are lots in the second chamber after the skimming chamber that spill out through the outflow. I cannot limit the air intake any more, as the slimmer overflows. It is quite limited though. I have a Deltec MCE600 and the orange switch is at 1:00 approximately

 

[Admann]

I really don't know! How can you tell? The funny thing is nothing showed in the tests! All parameters were OK and the water a murky brownish black mess and the fish dying!

Smells like rotten eggs

 

[Daniel@R2R]

Just checking in. How are things now?

 

[Superlightman]

Same happened to me ,it killed all my fish and coralls in my nano tanks! Even a 100% water change not helped and the glue started again to release some toxic i had completly to remove all scraper!******* bad product!

 

[DeniseAndy]

I tend to aquascape outside the tank if I am doing any gluing or epoxy. Then I put into the tank. I have done it with live rock no issues.

Sounds like the sandbed trapped a bunch of nasties in with the base rock. Moving it caused a storm of sorts.

I am happy your fish have survived. I hope the last one recovers. If you do want to remove sand and add back in, I have done this on my 210g without causing any issues. Key is how you do it.