Sand storm question? (1 Viewer)

[CBBSteve]

Last Friday, I took out my aragonite sand bed and replaced it with southdown sand bought from Ken - jawsk2. Unbelievable the amount of detritis trapped under the aragonite even though I've vacuumed it pretty much biweekly. The smell was awfull, too. Now that the fish and rocks are back in the tank, is there a good way to remove the fine white sediment that settles over everything in the tank? I tried hitting it with the turkey baster, but that just seems to stir it up again. I'd appreciate anyone's experience helping me out with this.

Thanks, Ken, for taking care of me on Friday. You've certainly got a nice tank in that corner.

Steve

 

[BrianPlankis]

I like to stir things up with the turkey baster and make sure my skimmer is running and it seems to take care of a decent amount of the particulates in the water.

I also noticed now that I have all the deco rock with clams on it, that my water clears up MUCH faster, so hopefully your deco rock will help too Did you get a lot of clams?

B.

 

[DonnieKim]

Man I got a bunch of clams, starting to notice some anemones, corals, etc. too!

 

[Guest]

I hate to sound stupid (no apparently I dont, seems to be the only way I learn anything) but why would someone

took out my aragonite sand bed and replaced it with southdown sand

I thought that aragonite was da' bomb and that the only reason some folks went with southdown was to save a few bucks. So why would you take out the expensive stuff anf replace it with the cheaper stuff?

 

[CBBSteve]

Well, in my case, I started with aragalive to give the sand bed a jumpstart. But then I started having constant algae problems and the detritus buildup was bothering me. I don't think I'm overfeeding - I feed 1/4 of a cube of frozen brine shrimp every other day - 4 fish, 5 shrimp, probably 2 dozen hermits. I'm thinking the southdown being more dense would keep the detritis up on the surface where it could be gotten to by the cleanup crew or vacuumed out more easily, I hope so anyway. I don't know about expensive stuff vs cheap stuff, its all expensive to me....

 

[djreef]

"its all expensive to me...."

Amen, brother.

DJ

 

[Guest]

I have read several threads on this board about people removing southdown because of the silicants in it causing algae problems, for your sake hope I just read them wrong. Was your previous bottom aragonite sand or crushed coral? The aragonite I usually see recomended is the sugar fine, I cant believe that southdown could be any denser than that.

 

[CBBSteve]

Thanks for the heads up about the silicates, highestbid. I tested silicates last night and found none, but I'll keep my eye on it.

As far as the white sediment all over everything, I think I'll just keep blowing it off for now.