do they live well

E-fphish · Post by **E-fphish** » 05 Dec 2003, 20:15

I am wondering if any one has had placoes in sand bottum tanks and if they have done well?
A friend of mine bought a gould nugget for his 60 gallon black sand bottum tank and it died with in a week this tank has been up and running for about 4 munthes and has fish that are doing fine. So I was wondering if the sand may have killed it, It was the first sucker fish that had been put in the tank. It has a few cats in it all ready a sydidintus and a pictus and a chanel cat and they all do fine.

please tell me if you have any info

magnum4 · Post by **magnum4** » 05 Dec 2003, 20:23

I am wondering if any one has had placoes in sand bottum tanks and if they have done well?

sand along with small round gravel are recomended. do a search for golden nugget and that will give you more than enough information about the problems.

The channel cat isn't big enough yet to be an issue? and the water has been tested i assume?

Pectorale · Post by **Pectorale** » 06 Dec 2003, 10:17

As long as the sand is clean and consists of "well-rounded" grains, I don't think that the sand was the problem, maybe an internal parasite or something?

flyinmike · Post by **flyinmike** » 06 Dec 2003, 15:03

I have a 110gal with sand for substrate. There are currently 3 plecs in there. A spotted orange seam, a butterfly, and a green phantom, and they seem to love the sand. It is the neatest thing to watch them dig in it. They just kind of start fluttering their fins and "zip", they disappear under the driftwood (it's seated all the way down to the glass so no-one gets squished).

JohnnyOscar · Post by **JohnnyOscar** » 06 Dec 2003, 16:35

How deep is your sand?

If it is too deep you can get toxic gas building up under the sand. When there's enough of it, it can bubble up through your tank and poison the water.

I've seen this happen in my 180 gallon tank. I put in 1.5" of sand initially, but the fish move it about and soon enough there were mountains and valleys. And after a while I spotted small bubbles coming from the mountains...

There's now a lot less sand in my tank. Fortunately I didn't lose any fish, but the sheer volume of gas I unearthed as I scooped out the sand was quite disturbing.

flyinmike · Post by **flyinmike** » 06 Dec 2003, 17:06

How deep is your sand?

I try to keep two opposite corners at about 4" and the middle about 1" but between fish and currents it is always shifting except around the plants.

If it is too deep you can get toxic gas building up under the sand. When there's enough of it, it can bubble up through your tank and poison the water.

Fortunately I didn't lose any fish, but the sheer volume of gas I unearthed as I scooped out the sand was quite disturbing

Curious, how did you know it was toxic?

JohnnyOscar · Post by **JohnnyOscar** » 06 Dec 2003, 17:17

flyinmike wrote:
How deep is your sand?
Curious, how did you know it was toxic?

I'm guessing it is hydrogen sulphide, it certainly smelled like it: rotten eggs. It can quickly bring down your pH. If your pH is already low, then H2S certainly won't help your fish....

flyinmike · Post by **flyinmike** » 06 Dec 2003, 17:25

I'm going to start a new post on this subject and see if we can get some more people in on this. This is the first I have heard of this and would like to hear more.