smelly stuff

[Beverly]

Originally Posted by sea gnome

Well the saga continues, my smelly water was black with a thick scum layer on top today and smelled really bad. I chose to scrub the rock and throw the water out.

Rachel,

I've been trying to figure out a couple of things....

- your tank crashed, though I don't know what kind of crash it was. Can you explain what you mean by "crash"?
- then your tank sprang a leak, so you removed everything but the sandbed to repair the leak. How much water did you have covering the sandbed? Did you have a powerhead or some way to move water over the sandbed?
- the rock was placed in buckets for a few days, right? Did you have water movement in the buckets during that time? If not, there would be some die-off of stuff on the rock, hence the scum on the surface and bad smell.

Originally Posted by sea gnome

The rock is now back in the tank and the sand bed is turning black!!

If you had little water covering the sandbed and the sandbed did not have any water movement, it may have crashed, meaning you're going to have an ammonia spike and the sandbed will be turning black is my best assessment.

What I would do is -- when you have several hours at one time to work on the tank, is remove the rock and place it in buckets of tankwater. Leave about 3" of water in the tank covering the sandbed. Then mix the sandbed really, really well. It'll stink like crazy, but it will bring detritus into the water column and will off-gas the anaerobic gases built up in the lower layers of the sandbed.

Once you have really dirty, stinky water, push the sand toward one end of the tank so there is a gully at the other end. Siphon out the dirty water from the gully until you can't siphon any more out. Level out the sand, add water and rock. Once the rock, sand and water are back in the tank, get your powerhead and heater up and running.

For at least a week afterward, monitor and record ammonia and nitrite to see if your tank is re-cycling. If so, do not add livestock until both toxins are at 0 ppm.

Livestock should be kept in a container with a powerhead, heater and light (if there are corals) and some rock to help process waste products. It would be okay not to feed fish for a few days to keep waste to a minimum so there are no ammonia spikes in there.

Originally Posted by sea gnome

The sand bed appears to be alive as I now have hundreds of red worms crawling out of the sand and up the glass. WTH are they? Good/bad? they are long and skinny and about 1" long.

These worms are good, so keep them. They are probably trying to escape your crashed sandbed. See above for dealing with the sandbed. I'm pretty sure the worms will survive the process I've outlined.

Originally Posted by sea gnome

I am soooo fustrated with the tank, if I hadn't done it in memory of my Dad I would probably be giving it up, but I know it can be beautiful again, I am tired of being a so so fish mummy.

Yes, I think your tank can be great again. Take this time to clean up the tank while it is still in pieces, which will help you restart the tank on better footing.

The most important thing about pulling a tank apart is to keep everything aerated and heated if the tank is apart for longer than a few hours.

I hope my comments are of help to you.