Sand bed screw up?

grr410

Active Member
View Badges
Joined
Oct 9, 2022
Messages
100
Reaction score
133
Location
Chalfont
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Been fighting Cyanobacteria now for a few months and started to siphon it off my sand bed. Tonight I ended up siphoning about half my sand trying to get a lot of the Cyanobacteria off the sand bed and now I am reading that this much disruption in my sand bed can cause major issues. Should I be concerned? Any suggestions on what to do? Or am I just freaking out for no reason.

Tank is Red Sea Reefer 200XL
 

EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal

Just another girl who likes fish
View Badges
Joined
May 14, 2019
Messages
13,414
Reaction score
19,931
Location
Spring, Texas
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Been fighting Cyanobacteria now for a few months and started to siphon it off my sand bed. Tonight I ended up siphoning about half my sand trying to get a lot of the Cyanobacteria off the sand bed and now I am reading that this much disruption in my sand bed can cause major issues. Should I be concerned? Any suggestions on what to do? Or am I just freaking out for no reason.

Tank is Red Sea Reefer 200XL
There's not a lot you can do now. The main problem with removing a large portion of the sand at one time is the possiblity of stirring up/releasing anaerobic pockets that may have formed.
Is your water cloudy?
 
OP
OP
grr410

grr410

Active Member
View Badges
Joined
Oct 9, 2022
Messages
100
Reaction score
133
Location
Chalfont
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Tank is a year old.
bio load is 2 clowns, eibli angel, melanarus wrasse, fire shrimp, pistol shrimp
bunch of corals mostly zoas, torches, hammers and my CUC
 

EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal

Just another girl who likes fish
View Badges
Joined
May 14, 2019
Messages
13,414
Reaction score
19,931
Location
Spring, Texas
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Water was a little cloudy seems to be clearing now
Sounds like a pretty shallow sand bed (or I would expect more cloudiness). You can run some carbon and add an air stone for a day or two just to be safe, but if the fish look ok (not breathing fast, not hanging out at the surface) you're probably fine.
 
OP
OP
grr410

grr410

Active Member
View Badges
Joined
Oct 9, 2022
Messages
100
Reaction score
133
Location
Chalfont
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Sounds like a pretty shallow sand bed (or I would expect more cloudiness). You can run some carbon and add an air stone for a day or two just to be safe, but if the fish look ok (not breathing fast, not hanging out at the surface) you're probably fine.
Yeah I run carbon anyway. Just checked looks clear and fish look healthy. I’ll test tomorrow but it seems ok for now.
 
OP
OP
grr410

grr410

Active Member
View Badges
Joined
Oct 9, 2022
Messages
100
Reaction score
133
Location
Chalfont
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
So I checked today and all the cyno came back in the sandbed.... what do you do to clean it out and prevent it from coming back? Im stuck here on this.... any help is appreciated.
 
OP
OP
grr410

grr410

Active Member
View Badges
Joined
Oct 9, 2022
Messages
100
Reaction score
133
Location
Chalfont
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Tank is about a year old. Just did some testing…. Noticed phosphates are higher than normal.

Phosphate 0.10 …. Avg over past month is .03
Nitrate 9.7
Alk 8.6
Salinity 1.024
 

Roatan Reef

Valuable Member
View Badges
Joined
Mar 28, 2022
Messages
1,051
Reaction score
2,046
Location
Melbourne fl
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
So I checked today and all the cyno came back in the sandbed.... what do you do to clean it out and prevent it from coming back? Im stuck here on this.... any help is appreciated.
Been fighting Cyanobacteria now for a few months and started to siphon it off my sand bed. Tonight I ended up siphoning about half my sand trying to get a lot of the Cyanobacteria off the sand bed and now I am reading that this much disruption in my sand bed can cause major issues. Should I be concerned? Any suggestions on what to do? Or am I just freaking out for no reason.

Tank is Red Sea Reefer 200XL

There's not a lot you can do now. The main problem with removing a large portion of the sand at one time is the possiblity of stirring up/releasing anaerobic pockets that may have formed.
Is your water cloudy?

Tank is a year old.
bio load is 2 clowns, eibli angel, melanarus wrasse, fire shrimp, pistol shrimp
bunch of corals mostly zoas, torches, hammers and my CUC
Step 1 .

Thoroughly clean Sand Bed.

Step 2.

Add Caribsea CoraLine Gravel (it's basically larger crushed coral chunks.

Step 3.

Get a bag of TBS Live Sand (Tampa Bay Saltwater) @LiverockRocks
And mix accordingly. You will have a nice mix of fine, chunky and live sand with all types of good stuff for your tank, and believe me, your tank will love it.
 

Reefing threads: Do you wear gear from reef brands?

  • I wear reef gear everywhere.

    Votes: 20 13.7%
  • I wear reef gear primarily at fish events and my LFS.

    Votes: 10 6.8%
  • I wear reef gear primarily for water changes and tank maintenance.

    Votes: 1 0.7%
  • I wear reef gear primarily to relax where I live.

    Votes: 22 15.1%
  • I don’t wear gear from reef brands.

    Votes: 83 56.8%
  • Other.

    Votes: 10 6.8%
Back
Top