+KimP Posted January 27, 2012 Share Posted January 27, 2012 I pulled some larger size rocks from the very bottom of my tank a couple days ago. Kicked up a bunch of junk which I know in a 4 yr old sandbed could be really bad news. I have a ton of carbon in the canister filter, plus fine floss I keep cleaning out, and 2 packs of purigen. My skimmer's pulling stuff out too. Everything looked to be doing great and I followed by a large water change. I'm not sure what else I could have done. 3 days later, just this morning when I looked at my tank I have a seahorse looking really bad with no obvious signs of what's wrong, my xenia is shrunken, and one of my favorite favias is looking terrible. Everything looked just fine yesterday evening. So my question is, there is detritus everywhere settling on all the coral, rocks, and sand. Should I keep blowing it off and kicking it up hoping the canister will slowly get it out? Do you think kicking it up over and over could be stressing anything out? It doesn't seem to be bothering most everything else. Sometimes I wish my tank wasn't so skinny and deep! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timfish Posted January 27, 2012 Share Posted January 27, 2012 My first question has there been a significant change in water parameters from before you moved the rocks? A noticable drop in pH would indicate a possible increase of CO2. I've moved tanks a lot older than that and there can be a HUGE amount of gunk stirred up but I "usually" don't have problems you described (not that I don't have a few sleepless nights ). I'm undecided if the deritus bothers animals more or less than the agitation of blowing it off but a water change never hurts and if you're carefull syphoning the detrirus off would not be as bothersome as blowing it off (if you're careful). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+KimP Posted January 28, 2012 Author Share Posted January 28, 2012 That's a great point. I didn't measure ph before, but I'll test it now. The seahorse is hanging out up at the very top of the tank. I am certainly relieved to hear you've done this before with no ill effects. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Koe Posted January 28, 2012 Share Posted January 28, 2012 I'd run a full set of tests to make sure none of your paramaters are off. If it looks like the stuff you stirred up is causing problems I'd try and suction it out rather than just keeping it stirred up and trying to let the filters pull it out. That would also get some clean water in your tank which wouldn't hurt. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+brian.srock Posted January 29, 2012 Share Posted January 29, 2012 Did your seahorse and tank recover? Was it the ph levels or something else? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
subsea Posted January 29, 2012 Share Posted January 29, 2012 On its on, stirring up the top inch of a DSB should never create a problem, if sand bed and bioload are in equilibrium. Before all the exotic invetebrae foods became available, many of us "old school" reef keepers stired our sand beds to feed our corals. As in everything, it depends on to what degree have you added suspended solids (dietrus, bacteria, micro fauna and fana)to the bulk water when you stirred up dietrus. It sounds like you have overloaded the biological capacity of your system, feeding seahorses will load up the nutriants to be processed. I had a diatom filter that would help polish the water. I think that you need an outside canister filter to remove the solid portion of the particulate matter settling in your tank. Many adapters allow you to syphon the gravel and rocks clean. Patrick Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+KimP Posted January 29, 2012 Author Share Posted January 29, 2012 The seahorse died by that evening. The other horses looked great and continue to look great, so maybe it was unrelated. Still sad though When I pulled her out I looked closely and couldn't find any sign of injury or illness. Subsea, I frequently stir the sandbed to feed my gorgonians and other filter feeders, but I don't stir under the rocks obviously, so that's why it kicked up so much detritus. I had/have my canister filter hooked up with a bunch of carbon and fine filter floss. The water clears up very quickly, so my main concern was the detritus left settling on all the coral. Yesterday I spent a lot of time trying to siphon off what I could. The tank is so deep that towards the bottom, where most of it is, I lose quite a bit of fine control and suction. As long as the corals and fish continue to look fine, I'm just going to leave things alone for a while and let things settle. Turns out my pH meter doesn't work, so I just hooked up an airline anyway to be on the safe side. Thanks again for the help Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timfish Posted January 29, 2012 Share Posted January 29, 2012 Sorry to hear your loss! If your other seahorses and inverts were acting pretty much normal I'd agree with you the one seahorse most likely had something wrong with her seperate from disturbing the rocks (not that stress from doing that may have contibuted to some small degree but it's impossible to say to what degree). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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