Black patches of sand

[Serpentman]

Sorry for all the questions. As you may have seen in my many other posts, I have been cycling with uncured LR.

I was working under the tank when I looked up and noticed very large patches of black sand under the large base pieces of LR which I am guessing is the result of the dieoff decomposing. I tried to stir the sand as much as possible without actually moving the rock. Is this going to be a problem?

 

[dskidmore]

After your cycle, get a cleanup crew, and maybe a detrivore kit, and everything should be fine. Small detrovores will stir up the sand and keep that from becomming a real problem. You probably just have no oxygen there, which can make it a potential site for denitrification, a good thing.

 

[Devilishturtles]

Black sand is a result of no oxygen. The bad part about it is that is allows anerobic bacteria to grow. If these got out into your water column in high numbers, it could kill your fish. Denitrification is a good thing, but make sure if you spot black sand again (try not to move you rockwork after it has settled for a while) either do not disturb it and place the rock back over it, or swirl it up AFTER you take the fish out of your tank. A good sand sifting crew, like dskidmore said, are awesome at keeping sand oxygenated. Nassarius/Llynassa snails rock.

 

[Serpentman]

I appreciate the help guys. It's all starting to come back to me.