Word of Caution: Mangrove Mud

Teemingtank · Jul 17, 2020

Making this post for anyone thinking of adding “mangrove mud” to their fuge. Make sure you’re purchasing from a reputable seller. I bought 5lbs on eBay and my tank officially crashed today. Fish are all dead and corals are close to joining them.

Honestly, I’m too embarrassed to post my tank. But after adding the mud I had a cyano and Dino(assuming) explosion. Also looks like it introduced velvet, lost my midnight occ earlier this week, perfectly healthy prior to the mud... Worked a ton of overtime this week and I couldn’t stay ahead of it with cleaning :/. Just trying to save someone else the headache!

happy Friday!

Bosreef · Jul 17, 2020

Sooo sorry my fellow reefer that is the worst.

Care to share where the mud came from?

Teemingtank · Jul 17, 2020

Bosreef said:
Sooo sorry my fellow reefer that is the worst.

Care to share where the mud came from?

Thank you. Really hate to name drop, but for the sake of fellow reefers...

purchased as “miracle mangrove mud”. Looked very promising when it arrived, lots of microfauna and micro-brittlestars.

Teemingtank · Jul 17, 2020

Teemingtank said:
Thank you. Really hate to name drop, but for the sake of fellow reefers...

purchased as “miracle mangrove mud”. Looked very promising when it arrived, lots of microfauna and micro-brittlestars.

Just to clarify, I don’t think it was intentional, but you’re better off buying the prepackaged stuff

muzikalmatt · Jul 17, 2020

Wow, so sorry to hear that. Hope your corals are able to pull through at least.

Bosreef · Jul 17, 2020

Thanks

Have you contacted the seller?

Teemingtank · Jul 17, 2020

Bosreef said:
Thanks

Have you contacted the seller?

Debating on that. Not sure what good it will do. I’m not going to ask for compensation because I understand it’s out of their control. That’s also why I was kinda hesitant name dropping, times are kinda tough right now and I’d hate to scorch someone’s business

Maybe they’ll change their harvest spot? I’m assuming they just go out to the groves with a shovel and collect it.

Live and you learn. Nitrates definitely tanked after adding it! My chaeto shrunk like testes in December ;Hilarious

andrewkw · Jul 17, 2020

Did you put it in water first or just dump it in your tank? While it's certainly possible fish disease came from this - I doubt a random seller is going to quarantine the mud they collect then sell (nor should they really be expected to unless they charge a premium for this service). I would speculate the more likely scenario is you had a lot of die off in transit. Did you test ammonia?

Texas Rick · Jul 17, 2020

Your not doing any justice not helping your fellow refers. If a vendor is selling dirty or contaminated products. I believe we should know. It’s not right for us to suffer the consequences in the hundreds of dollars we have invest to have a beautiful tank for a vendor to sell dirty or contaminated product.

I’m sorry Reef2Reef, but we have the right to know when things like this happen. Even if we put the vendor on blast. We have invest hundreds of dollars for a miserable foolish vendor to come and destroy our tanks. If this is against your policy. Maybe you should revise your policy and be with the general public rather than a foolish vendor who decides to destroy our tanks at our cost. They may pay to sell and I fully understand that may be part of your income. But how is it justifiable for them to sell us dirty or contaminated products. You should have them on a point system or 3 strikes your out.

fish farmer · Jul 17, 2020

FWIW, you bought 5 lbs of mud teeming with life, some die off probably happened during transit. I would think the same would happen if you put a 5 lb piece of live rock in your tank as well.

How large was the system you were putting it in?

Teemingtank · Aug 2, 2020

fish farmer said:
FWIW, you bought 5 lbs of mud teeming with life, some die off probably happened during transit. I would think the same would happen if you put a 5 lb piece of live rock in your tank as well.

How large was the system you were putting it in?

It was rinsed before I added to my sump with 5 gallons of that boxed Petco saltwater. I had green hair algae prior, never had red cyano or brown dinos until after I added it. 50 gallon bowfront with 13 gallon sump. Was going to sell it all, but the low balls were ridiculous. Cleaned it this weekend. Before and afters pictured.

In regards to the fish disease, I never even had a fish show any signs of crypto prior to adding. After adding, they developed lesions and white marks and died alarmingly fast. Derby, the dusky wrasse, is the lone survivor at the moment.