Black Sand..?

[willowstwin]

Hey

I've just been vaccing the work tank, and decided to shift a few things around to give the fish something "new" to explore, however, when I moved the bogwood, the sand was dirty looking and brown/black underneath. I thought it might be the top layer, but I got all the way to the bottom of the tank and it was the same all the way through. I thought this might just be under the bogwood, but when I moved the ornaments and coconut, it was the same.

Can anyone shed any light on why this has happened? I'm hoping a similar thing doesn't happen with the black sand I intend to get for my 90litre (discolouration would look awful)

 

[Noahs ark6]

This is happening to me too. It absolutely stinks like sulpher aswell

 

[balajake]

I had the same with sand and had to go back to fine black gravel. I didn't even hav it in long and it smelled so bad.

 

[Louiseness]

it's caused by the sand getting stagnant under your decor and gases build up, which causes the smell. Having fish who will aerate the sand (cories, loaches, cichlids etc) will prevent it, or just give the sand a quick stir around when you do a water change, the discolouration will go away.

 

[AmazonFTW]

It's anaerobic bacteria that are living in the sand, I don't think it's harmful (as far as I know) but as said it stinks!

AmazonFTW

 

[willowstwin]

ahhh ok... so, cories are planned for my 90litre so hopefully that'll be ok. You're right though, it stinks to high heaven!!

 

[SaTiVa1984]

I had this under a large plastic grass effect plant i used to have, every time i lifted it to clean, the entire surface area under it was black, and it went right to the glass at the bottom.

I had to syphon all the black sand out, and the smell was horrific.

 

[Tizer]

It was the same in my tank the other week when i took everything out, its a little minging, smells of eggs, was the closest i could get to identifying it. You cant really avoid it, even corys dont dig deep enough to prevent it. There are other substrates which let oxygen pass through it more easily, like kitty litter, which i've just started using and corys seem fine on it

 

[Steve GT]

from my experience black sand is aweful stuff. no matter how clean and how many water changes i did the tank still looked horrible and dingy

switched back to gravel and its crystal clear now. Black sands horrible stuff IMO il never use it again

 

[balajake]

It was too much for me to cope with in my big tank. The rotten egg smell was minging so have gone back to fine black gravel

 

[Steve GT]

yeah i forgot to mention the smell too.......disgusting and it gets so much messier quicker than gravel lol

 

[Mike G]

Glad I read this was thinking about changing from gravel to sand.......thanks for the advice

 

[SaTiVa1984]

Glad I read this was thinking about changing from gravel to sand.......thanks for the advice

Don't let this put you off of having sand over gravel..

Sand can look really beautiful and natural in any fishtank, i must add i only ever had this black sand when i had plastic plants, i never seem to get it under my rocks, and only occasionally get it under my live plants now, a quick syphon and stir and your good to go again for another 2-3 week.

The smell does disappear after a couple of hours after disturbing the black sand also.

 

[willowstwin]

Tizer, you use cat litter as a substrate?

I'm tempted to find a very fine smooth gravel. I've seen a couple advertised online, but I'd need to get my hands on a bag to see just how small and smooth it really is.