DSB issue

[elysium]

My husband's 125 gallon tank has about a 6" sand bed. It's a toxic mess that I stirred up while cleaning the rocks. He had snails, crabs, and a few fish that cleaned the sand at one time. Sump pump & tank still not set back up. Skimmer still off right now. He has connected pvc with holes in it and a pump that he used air to move water (own set up), which is also off right now. I'm still trying to sort through it his salt water equipment, read up, and figure out what goes where. So the only water flow I have going right now is 4 350 gallon filters (cleaned & without the filters in them).

Questions: Is there any way of getting rid of the dsb without killing the whole tank? If not, is there any point trying to save a tank with a very dirty dsb? I've been vacuuming small areas of sand each day. (Goes with the water changing.) But that only cleans the top inch of sand and most of the clumps of decay are further down.

 

[PRC]

You can slowly suck out the sand..You want to do it just a little at a time over multiple water changes....A little here, a little there...Until it gets to where you want it...

If you can post some pics of what you have as far as equipment. we can certainly help you with "what goes where"

 

[ltljoker]

Your sand bend isnt a huge problem, you could always get some sandsifting starfish to help out and some serpeant satfish. they will really clean up a sandbed.

 

[Bifferwine]

I would take a plastic cup and gradually scoop out the sand, little by little.

 

[elysium]

PRC, I'll try to get some photos in the days ahead. I'm afraid if I have to do this little by little it will be a year project just cleaning/cycling/cleaning the filth goes all the way down.

Joker, I need to move the rocks to clean them. This stirs up the mess. My rocks are turning white (cycling, I believe as that is what my husband said it was when it happened once with him) and I'm getting an 'ashy' fallout (looks like volcano ash) all over the tank which happened only after moving the dirty sand. I want to believe this can be solved by serpant fish (starfish are not good for coral, right?), but I think I will just keep doing this if I move the rocks to clean them and stir up or remove the sand. I don't want to put new fish in the tank if it will keep cycling. Will it only do this once (like it did for my husband) or will the sand movement release toxins and do this each time?


ETA:
Bifferwine, I guess it's worth a try. Thanks. (You posted while I had the response window open, but was reading elsewhere.)

 

[ErinCahir]

Serpent stars (along with a couple others) are reef safe. Most of us have them as part of our "clean up crew".
The reason you are experiencing a cycle is because the sand bed got stirred up. You should do what Biff suggested and just scoop it out, a little at a time, over the course of a few weeks. This will limit the amount of junk you expose and (hopefully) your bacteria will be able to keep it somewhat in check.
Most of us do not touch the sand bed when we do water changes for this reason exactly. We rely heavily on animals to do this job for us (snails and starfish).

Good luck!!

 

[elysium]

Erin, I started cleaning before I read the disaster's page and realized that 'dirty sand' in the front of the tank was what a dsb was suppose to look like. Bill had it like that for about 6ish years. Now I know why. :) I do think I need to get rid of it. Weeks isn't as bad as the months I thought it might take. But each time the sand stirs from removing it won't I be back cycling? Perhaps I would be better off taking the rocks out, giving away the few crabs and fish and just starting the tank over?

 

[AmberSunrise]

My sandsifting watchman goby does a knockout job of keeping my sand seriously stirred up so it never sits long and he is a awesome lil fish to watch as well.

 

[ErinCahir]

I personally think you should just scoop the sand out a little at a time until the sand bed is not so deep. Mine is about 1 1/2" or so.
You do it a little at a time so prevent a cycle. The bacteria that live in the sand and the rocks is what breaks the ammonia into nitrates and nitrites. So if you do it a little at a time (theoretically), the bacteria has time to "catch up" to you and you won't start all over every time.
I think you should stick with what you have. It sounds like it would be a bigger pain to start all over than to try to fix it. If that is what you're willing to do, though, we can help you through that, too!

 

[elysium]

Amber, as soon as I feel a bit more confident that I won't kill any newbies to the tank, I will definately look into a sandshifting watchman. Thanks for mentioning it! :)

Erin, that's what I'll do then. I was wondering which was easier, thanks for letting me know. Personally, I didn't want to start over as it wouldn't feel as much like 'his tank' then. I didn't want to kill everything either. Thanks for letting me know there's a chance I won't. :) knock, knock, knock....

 

[little_fish]

Just take it slow and steady.

We have a saying, not good happens fast in this hobby.

 

[tegracer877]

QUESTION: what would be so bad about this?...

1. take all the critters out
2. scoop/suck all the sand out
3. put new live sand in
4. change 75-90% of water
5. test water for a day, make sure ammonia is zero or close to zero
6. put critters in

im sure a mini cycle will happen but.. whats so bad about that?

 

[little_fish]

I think you would be fine doing that, but i think it will take longer than a day to get back to normal levels. I would just keep them in a big plastic tub, with a heater and a powerhead. But you will need to test their levels daily to see if there is a rise in ammonia or nitrites and have water on hand to do a water change. You will essentially be doing a quarantine. Its easy to do and many many many people do it.

But also, just use dry sand. Its much cheaper, you can rise all the dusty, annoying particles out first, and it will become live over time!!