Sand turning black

[psionicdragon]

What would cause sand beds to turn black and what is the effects from a blacken sand bed?

 

[Mr. Ugly]

Could be a rise in anaerobic bacteria. Sulfide deposits will look black. Don't stir it up though. H2S and other bad stuff can come out.

 

[psionicdragon]

oh, how do i get rid of it? it looks...nasty

 

[zivic2play]

One way is to siphon out parts of the sand and replace it.

 

[psionicdragon]

The thing is the whole sandbed is blackened.

 

[Mr. Ugly]

Maybe full of stuff that's undergoing anaerobic decomposition.

What kind of tank/lighting/flow feeding on this system? This is a dsb?

 

[sfsuphysics]

What you might do is if you have a small thin piece of acrylic (credit card) is very gently push down against the glass near the sand bed and kind of fluff up the stuff in front, as long as you don't disturb large portions you can usually get away with a little bad stuff bubbling out (and it literally will burp a bubble that goes right to the surface... just don't stick your nose over it and inhale

 

[psionicdragon]

acrylic tank,
2-3 inch sand bed
250watt mh 10k reeflux
two tunze 6100 on multicontroller
feeding on wednesday and sundays only.