deep sand bed problem..help!!

[uwiik]

i just finished setting up my new 600 g tank, I put about 5 inch of live sand direct from the ocean, lots of cured live rocks installed bubble king 2000 skimmer, deltec fluidized ca reactor, rowaphos with fluidizer, four tunze 6200 pumps controlled by tunze 7095, Sequence Reeflo barracuda return pump, two hamilton 250w and one 400w hamilton supplemented with ATI actinics T5, 100 g refugium with chaetomorpha and lots of baby mangrove. Everything has been going really smoothly from the start, really smooth that I do not even have problem with algae outbreak, parameters as follow (salifert test kits):
Nitrite=0
Nitrate= less than 2
Phospate= undetectable
Ca=400
KH=9 Dkh
Ph=8.1-8.2
I am dosing DT live phytoplankton everyday, salifert phospate eliminator and aquapharm zoxan two.

The tank has been running for about a month now and i started putting some LPS and SPS no fish, 20 turbo snails

A week ago i started noticing that the bottom layer of my live sand turning black, I believe it is the dreaded hydrogen sulphide, how could it happen??? I've setup a few tanks before with deep sand bed and I never encountered this problem before. Now I am scared to death... Is there any solution for this problem?? what happen if I just leave it as it is?? A friend of mine had this problem before, he tried stirring the sand which resulted in complete wipeout of the fishes.....

[drummereef]

Just a guess, but do you think it could be die off from using live ocean sand? I too have a dsb but used dry sand from day one. Did you use sand from the ocean on your other successful setups?

Definitely don't stir it. Absolutely the worst thing you could do at this point.

[uwiik]

I decided to use live sand direct from the ocean because I've had a very good experience with this method, the last tank I setup using this kind of sand managed to mature so fast that I can start keeping SPS after only 3-4 weeks of setup completion. However this time I use finer grade sand, I thought this will be a better approach, never thought that I will encounter this problem... So what should I do now??? stop adding livestock and leave it until the sand heal itself?? what about DT live phyto?? should I keep dosing it along with the zoxan two (balanced iodine iodide)?? So far my red tabletop acropora is still thriving with full expansion of the smooth polyps, and so do the other sps and LPS (about 20 pcs altogether), do you think this black sand will pose a problem shortly??

[DaveJ]

My opinion...... that's probably the result of the live sand below dying off. I would stop adding new things so just in case it gets worse or you end up with a big problem, its limited in its damage.

I would also suggest you start actively running carbon 24/7. Get yourself a phosban reactor or something attached to a pump and fill it with carbon to run through. Don't just drop a bag of it in... That should help minimize any issues that could pop up.

My opinion (based off 3 DSB's) is that areas of black or discoloration in the DSB are normal, but at the same time this will probably work itself out over time since anything in the bed in gas form is released up through the sand. The key important thing is that its slow and in small amounts over time. When its released all at once, that is when you get crashes and die off.

Get yourself some good sand stirrers, a bunch of nassarius, conchs and anything that will turn your sandbed over, bristle worms etc. You didn't mention any DSB critters, so I assume you don't have any of those. If you do, get more... and watch them. Since they are spending their time at and in the bed, they will be your canaries. It takes a good 6 months to a year for a DSB to get up to full filtration benefits and that includes more animals than just Live Sand.

Also in my opinion, you have started stocking you tank way too fast. You should be waiting 4-6 months before adding corals of any type, regardless of the test results etc. It takes time to establish the foundation of your tank. You can add a couple of fish after a month or so..... but usually its best to wait 3 months or so and just put in your clean up crew first.

Also.. stop dosing the DT's until you have critters that will benefit from it. Its too big for corals to utilize and even clams don't really need it.

I think you may be fine and just experiencing the results of using so much Live Sand to start. I think you should start with dead sand and add Live Sand to it, then let it develop from there. That avoids all that die off down below, which is what you are experiencing now I would wager.