hydrogen sulfide???

[btuck]

I've been doing some reading on hydrogen sulfide and noticed that it may be what's lurking in my sandbed.

First off a little background on the sand. It's close to three years old now, probably 4 inches deep on average and is comprised mainly of Southdown. I switched it over from my 55 about a year ago to my 75 and have things just have not seemed to be quite right ever since.

Ok I noticed a few weeks ago that some of my sand underneath was a nice blackish color. (I put a tunze nano in and it blew some of the sand around). I thought this was strange as it was all white when it went in. I pulled out a sample and put it into a cup as I do not have a clear glass pipette and noticed that there was a lot of black in the sand and it stunk of rotton eggs. A telltale sign of sulfur right???

As I look back on it after the move I did have a few corals die. I lost an entire colony of xenia, an open brain on the sand and I also noticed my once booming population of Nassarius snails had dwindled and the aiptasia population exploded.

I guess my question is does this sound like a case of hydrogen sulfide or perhaps just nutrients leaching from the move.

Thanks for your help

 

[packer]

No doubt hydrogen sulfide. That is the danger of a deep sand bed, if it gets stirred up your in trouble. A friend had a deep sand bed and at night a powerhead fell off the tank wall and onto the sand. He woke up the next morning to a horendous stench and a very dead tank.

 

[btuck]

do you think my best course of action is to suck the sand out slowly with water changes? I wouldn't think it would be wise to take it out all at once as the LR couldn't handle the bioload.

Thanks

 

[Herefishyfishy]

do you think my best course of action is to suck the sand out slowly with water changes? I wouldn't think it would be wise to take it out all at once as the LR couldn't handle the bioload.

Thanks

If you wish to change from your DSB, that is the way to do it.

 

[Herefishyfishy]

do you think my best course of action is to suck the sand out slowly with water changes? I wouldn't think it would be wise to take it out all at once as the LR couldn't handle the bioload.

Thanks

If you wish to change from your DSB, that is the way to do it. You can also replace the sand that way if you wish?