The Amazing Sand bed!

T

trybry5

AC Members
Oct 15, 2003
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www.aquabid.com
After rescuing my clean-up crew from my waterless tank (see post: A groan, no aquarist should hear).

I set up a new tank to cycle Monday. I used Playsand (sorry that was popular back then), that was left over from 2002.

Two days after the leak out of the original tank, I removed the sand bed from it. I wanted to place it over the Playsand. And yes. I too, fell for the 2002, "buy a bag of live sand" trick.

With in 24 hours, I saw amphipods running around the cycling tank and on day two a large Cerinth snail. Which, I removed it, from the cycling tank.

It's amazing how long they can live in damp sand, without any water. I guess both are tidal creatures. 48 hours, is a long time without flowing water.
 
I had an anemone survive an unfortunate 8 hours in a bucket full of live rock, with no heater or circulation.. (Moving can be tough with a tank)

Some creatures are indestructible, no matter what people say.. Others; not so much. I had three zenia frags melt away in less than 24 hours, on three separate occasions..
 
Being from the other side of the forum, so to speak, I don't know saltwater critters ... But I know a great success story when I read it! Great job on saving your stock, and glad some of the clean-up crew made it as well.

:thm:
 
Sand bed critters are traditionally very hardy. They have to put up with a lot of stressors that other organisms would never encounter, including high levels of hydrogen sulfide, exceptionally low oxygen, exceptionally low pH, crushing/grinding, dessication (intertidal areas), and temperatures (again, mostly intertidal areas). Many of these guys are the hardiest of the hardy. This usually extends to the aquarium as well. The most common causes of loss of diversity/amount of these meiofaunal organisms isn't the stressors you describe--its starvation first of all and predation second. Maximize the first and minimize the second. Your sand bed will thank you.
 
Thanks Deb,

I would say 95% of them (CUC), made it!
The babies (see post: babies on board) not so much!
Just lucky for me,the bed didn't try to stink up the house!
 
Now that's interesting, I did not see them in that kind of light.

Now is it true that, Nerite and Nassarius larva, need a changing salinity to mature?
I have larva, that is trying to make it!

I should be thanking my sand bed!
 
trybry5 said:
Now that's interesting, I did not see them in that kind of light.

Now is it true that, Nerite and Nassarius larva, need a changing salinity to mature?
I have larva, that is trying to make it!

I should be thanking my sand bed!
Click to expand...

No, that's not necessarily true for Nassarius. All of their larvae are pelagic and will mostly be exposed to full strength seawater, but others will be exposed to lower salinities. Nerites mostly breed in brackish water and don't have a pelagic life stage.

FWIW, you can use the quote buttons to make multiple replies in one post instead of making a bunch of single ones. Start with the first message and hit the quotation marks on all the ones you'll be replying to, then hit "quote."
 
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