My Sand Has Gone Grey And Stinks

[STEWARDSONS]

when i transfered the sand from my old tank to my new one it smelt like a sewer. some of it was grey and i mixed this with new sand and put it in the new tank.

well i just uprouted a plant to move it and all the grey sand came up ontop and it stinks. is this normal? or do i need to do somethign drastic

 

[matt_storey]

its just a build up of waste, what i do is stir the sand up a bit once a week to try get rid of most of it, its good to have some near the plants as it'll act as food for them

 

[Davo86]

If you have a sand substrate then you should keep livestock that are continuously moving the sand around, otherwise it will compact, go stagnant and allow toxins to build up.

species like corydoras and malaysian trumpet snails or a larger species like an earth eating geophagus would work with your stocking and would assist in solving your problems

 

[STEWARDSONS]

i had two proximus geos but i decided to take them back to the shop as they would have outgrown my tank.

my cupids are 'eartheaters' and do sift the sand to some extent but my sand is quite deep.

in fact at the front there is a blue/grey patch see photo



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[StandbySetting]

They're anaerobic pockets, totally harmless, the oxidized hydrogen sulphide (sulphur dioxide) is what you can smell, it smells like rotten eggs, it's harmless.

 

[CrazyAirborne]

malayan trumpet snails will help churn up your sand, and they seem to be in all depths of the sand, so it could help u out. i recommend them.

 

[Davo86]

a 'stirring stick' may also help, which is simply a small cane or stick that you use to physically stir the sand every few days

 

[Tizer]

It looks like you are using a very very fine sand, possibly playsand from Argos? I've just put some in a fry tank myself and found that its a very fine and compact substrate very hard to get any air into it. I dont know how others deal with this as in my main tank i have silica sand, but i would suggest running a fork through it now and again in the patches you can get to.

 

[Tizer]

It looks like you are using a very very fine sand, possibly playsand from Argos? I've just put some in a fry tank myself and found that its a very fine and compact substrate very hard to get any air into it. I dont know how others deal with this as in my main tank i have silica sand, but i would suggest running a fork through it now and again in the patches you can get to.

 

[Tizer]

nngh double post.

 

[StandbySetting]

There's no need to aerate the sand, it serves no purpose.

 

[stu40]

i've heard of double vision, but this is ridiculous.

 

[STEWARDSONS]

it is fine sand however its the expensive silver sand on top ans what was sold to me as silver sand but is normal very fine sand on the bottom

 

[STEWARDSONS]

just called LFS (MA), and they have said that they dont stock trumpet snails as they are considered a pest, said he had some yellow snails that would do a similar job, is this correct?

 

[Louiseness]

It looks like you are using a very very fine sand, possibly playsand from Argos? I've just put some in a fry tank myself and found that its a very fine and compact substrate very hard to get any air into it. I dont know how others deal with this as in my main tank i have silica sand

I just stir my sand up with a big plastic slotted spoon that I didn't need from the kitchen!