Black sand

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Taylor Price

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Nov 5, 2018
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I have a 20 gallon freshwater tank that’s a few months old, maybe 2/3. It’s been cycled and my fish are doing great. I have some live plants, 6 corydoras, 2 snails(one nerite and one mystery), 5 Raspbora Hets, 1 clown pleco and frank the Betta. They all do great and are very active including the snails. My issue is that my tan sand has developed a black pocket. I haven’t disturbed it until I know what it is. In the photo it’s in the center close to the black bar at the bottom of the aquarium.

image.jpg
 

FreshyFresh

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Jan 11, 2013
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From what I can tell from the pic, the sand depth doesn't look deep enough to worry about an anaerobic pocket of nastiness in there. I'd just roll with it. Do you have small snails? Some Malaysian trumpets are a good thing for the substrate IMO.
 
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the loach

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Deep enough for anaerobic spots, maybe the tank is not old enough,...
Sand may look nice but that is about the only benefit. Like a white carpet in your hallway, it requires a lot of work. Literally vacuuming and rubbing (in that order) will remove it.
 

Taylor Price

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From what I can tell from the pic, the sand depth doesn't look deep enough to worry about an anaerobic pocket of nastiness in there. I'd just roll with it. Do you have small snails? Some Malaysian trumpets are a good thing for the substrate IMO.
I have a nerite snail and a mystery snail
 

forse

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Malaysian trumpet snails can aerate the substrate nicely and they do not harm the plants.
 

Taylor Price

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Malaysian trumpet snails can aerate the substrate nicely and they do not harm the plants.
So I was looking up where to get them and I saw some threads about petsmart giving them away because they can be pests. All the threads were old and I was wondering if you know if that was still true.
 

the loach

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Many stores give them away. They won't help with dirty spots though, and there is no guarantee whatsoever you won't get anaerobic spots.
 

forse

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They are considered pests because they can breed extremely fast; as a matter of fact, they are livebearing snails. You can control their population by siphoning them in each water change. I have a 38 gallon tank with sand as substrate and I have never had an anaerobic issue on it for 8 years, without needing to siphon; just using the Malaysian trumpet snails and doing vacuum cleaning over the top of the sand. Of course , the sand is only 1 inch deep.
 
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authmal

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Aug 4, 2011
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Easier to not overfeed. No pest snail is going to breed a ton if there isn't enough food.
 
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forse

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I agree with you authmal. To avoid overfeeding is the #1 rule to control that snail population. Getting rid of the excess of them by siphoning, is just a help.
 
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