Is this possibly my problem?

[Chris J]

So about 4-6 months ago I switched my sand from normal argonite sand to black petco brand sand but put the other sand in a chamber in my sump for DSB benefits. About a month after that I got an led light off of amazon and bleached a few corals along with a nem, but since then any new corals (xenia, kenya tree, now seems to be hitting my torch) also seem to die even with the light set at about 25% power on both my blue and whites LEDs. My PH is a little low at about 8.0 but remains stable, my ammo and trites are 0 trates at about 5 constantly. Temp. 80 Salinity. 1.025 Cal 450mg/l. I've recently noticed that my black sand has a tendency to stick to the magnets on my algae magnet, leading me to believe that it is partly metallic and possibly leaching heavy metals in to my tank slowly? Does this sound possible or am I just talking crazy?

 

[Chris J]

No input? If I'm crazy and this is ridiculous please tell me.

 

[BellyUp]

Wow! I honestly can't give a good reply since this is uncharted territory for me with the black sand. This group is usually great with advice.. Maybe just people who also are in my boat are the ones seeing it. Maybe change your thread title to include 'switched to black sand...corals dying' or something like that to get the right eyes on it..? I always try to include specific key words in titles since a lot of people just cruise through them. Sorry wish I could help more! Good luck!

 

[Chris J]

Wow! I honestly can't give a good reply since this is uncharted territory for me with the black sand. This group is usually great with advice.. Maybe just people who also are in my boat are the ones seeing it. Maybe change your thread title to include 'switched to black sand...corals dying' or something like that to get the right eyes on it..? I always try to include specific key words in titles since a lot of people just cruise through them. Sorry wish I could help more! Good luck!

Thanks belly up, I'm not mad I didn't get any replies, I've gotten my fair share of info from members here, I am just kind of at a loss, I think I may just remove all the black and go back to normal aragonite to set my mind at ease.

 

[Rutrag]

You may be correct that the sand has metal in it. Try holding one of the algae magnets above the sand and see if it raises up. If so, you've found your culprit.

It will be more expensive, but I know that Naure's Ocean has a live sand product called balck beach sand which is safe.

 

[Gregcoyote]

If the sand is attracted to the magnet, there is without doubt ferrous metal, probably iron in it. Most black sand, is volcanic if it wasn't man made ground glass. If its volcanic, it could easily have iron in it.

 

[Chris J]

Thank you, unfortunately I think my nem and corals may be too far gone to save at this point but I was awestruck when I would routinely have great parameters yet my entire tank seemed wilted and even the hardiest of corals died (GSP, xenia, Kenya tree) but they all seemed great for like the first week they were in my tank, seemed to be taking off and then bam! Stopped opening fully and slowly withered away. All other inverts appear ok, just a starfish and urchin but if it's slowly killing my corals they may be next, looks like I'm rearranging my rock work again... Oh well. I thought it said marine safe on the bag but I could be mistaken. It definitely sticks to any magnet (algae scrubber, ph) so I'm sure it's magnetic, I just hope I found out why I suddenly suck at keeping even simple corals. Before this I was ready to just go back to FOWLR... You guys have given me hope that maybe I don't just fail miserably at keeping corals.