Hey everyone. I slowly started adding aragonite sand to my fowlr system that has been established for roughly 2.5 years. Alittle here alittle there. When donig a routine water change a few days ago some of the water i was adding stirred up and released some bubbles into the water colum. I noticed it smelled like sulfur. The sand is only about an inch deep so i thought no big deal. I lost my 3 foot long zebra eel yesturday out of the blue. The rest of the fish seem fine. I always read that if the sand bed was shallow as mine is it is okay to stir up the sand bed alittle. Just looking for answers. Im thinking that adding sand to an already established aquarium caused this.
Adding sand to already established tank
- Thread starter Skywalker
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Mike Johnson
Well-Known Member
There is so much to answering this - it could be a chapter in a book; but, here goes. First, are you sure you're not just being overly paranoid. I say this because it is actually a very rare occurrence for hydrogen sulfide to build up in an aquarium. And, even if there is hydrogen sulfide in a sand bed the toxicity would rarely be enough to kill any inhabitants.
Hydrogen sulfide is a natural occurrence in the ocean and for it to be toxic enough to kill something in your tank you would have smelled it and your wife would have made you get rid of your aquarium a long time ago. In other words for the toxicity to be high enough to kill something it would have run you out of your house a long time ago.
Another misconception is that a deep sand bed is the cause of hydrogen sulfide pockets. That is not the case. It is a sand bed that is deeper than 1/2" and less 3" that is most vulnerable. A DSB has the denitrifying bacteria that will keep it from happening. A sand bed that is too deep to be fully aerobic and not deep enough to be anaerobic is when it will cause problems.
You'll have to ask questions to get more explanations because I'm too tired and I'm going to bed. I'm just saying that I'd look into another reason why your zebra eel died.
Hydrogen sulfide is a natural occurrence in the ocean and for it to be toxic enough to kill something in your tank you would have smelled it and your wife would have made you get rid of your aquarium a long time ago. In other words for the toxicity to be high enough to kill something it would have run you out of your house a long time ago.
Another misconception is that a deep sand bed is the cause of hydrogen sulfide pockets. That is not the case. It is a sand bed that is deeper than 1/2" and less 3" that is most vulnerable. A DSB has the denitrifying bacteria that will keep it from happening. A sand bed that is too deep to be fully aerobic and not deep enough to be anaerobic is when it will cause problems.
You'll have to ask questions to get more explanations because I'm too tired and I'm going to bed. I'm just saying that I'd look into another reason why your zebra eel died.
Mike Johnson
Well-Known Member
There's absolutely no way a 6 week old 1" sand bed could build up enough hydrogen sulfide to kill anything.
You can add a dry quality aragonite sand like caribsea aragonite (not alive) sand in any amounts at anytime on top of an established sandbed - no problems, though I would not recommend stirring it
+1 to the input ^ sorry to hear you lost your eel
but your adding the sand didn't cause it, not even if you stir in this case
sidebar - for anyone reading... if you are replacing your sand or crush coral, doing it like 1/3 at a time over several weeks is best
from all I have read... see what others think
+1 to the input ^ sorry to hear you lost your eel
but your adding the sand didn't cause it, not even if you stir in this case sidebar - for anyone reading... if you are replacing your sand or crush coral, doing it like 1/3 at a time over several weeks is best
from all I have read... see what others think