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Today i removed a big piece of Bogwood/Driftwood from my tank & underneath it, i found black sand & it's a bit smelly. What should i do?. Remove it or it's good for my plants?.
Thanks in advance.


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remove it

Definately siphon it out. Most likely it's detritus that's just gone beyond rotten and will be emitting toxic gasses into your aquarium.

siphon it outa there- its nasty gunk that got under the wood and rotted. only way to prevent it that i have found is either have LOTS of mts, or Move the wood and clean under it once a month.

jasonpisani

I would not only remove all the sand I would replace it with a good pebble substrate, the reason it is going to continualy happen no matter what you do.

I also would clean the driftwood and do several water changes as well.


Keith

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Absolutely get it siphoned out of there, it can be toxic. I agree with Keith and if it was me would get rid of the sand and get a gravel substrate.

Jim

---

Water, taken in moderation, cannot hurt anybody. -- Mark Twain

Yes, the sand under the Bogwood was dirty, as i don't clean it much. I'll start removing it when i'll do my water changes & clean underneath it.

I chose sand because it's more natural in my SA tank.


http://uk.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/s8xi5heh/my_photos
http://www.deathbydyeing.org/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/corydoras/
Member of the Malta Aquarist Society - 1970.
http://www.maltaaquarist.com

jasonpisani,
Leave the sand it's not the problem, you just need to look @different ways of maintaining it compaired to a rock tank. First off keep it as shallow as possible, consider using terraces for the areas where the pants are. Next look for malaysian trumpet snails in your LFS. They're livebearing so you won't need all that many. Add to your tank, feed a few extra greens a week and you should have plenty. They will help keep the sand stirred up, preventing the black parts, and anerobic air pockets under the sand. Additionally they will munch on algae and leftovers that they find in the tank but won't hurt your plants @all (could you ask for a better snail !).
And when cleaning pay attention to those areas of the tank that won't recieve as much water flow. There are some areas in my sand tank that just collect the waste. Those are the areas I concentrate on when doing regular maintence. The rest of the tank is pretty much taken care of just by the movement from the powerhead, and filter.

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