what is sticking out of my sand..

[Smarkalan83]

I had just done a 15 gallon water change on my 60 and I had sucked up some of my sandbed because I had a cyano outbreak that was not getting better.. now I have all these things sticking out of the sand and they were not coming up w the cyano....can someone tell me what this is and what I should do with it ....its making my sand look terrible.. also can I add live sand to an already cycled tank....I would like to make my sandbed a little deeper....any ideas...thanks

 

[Starblenny]

How much sand did you suck out or how long have you had the sand bed? That happens to my tank too when I suck out a good amount of sand. I believe they're those live stuff that's responsible that makes our sand 'alive', ya know, those organisms that is responsible for lowering our Nitrate... I forgot the name though. Harmless, but taking out too much sand at once, espcically if it's a DSB system is a bit dangerous on the stability of the system.

I have a shallow sand bed and I lightly vacuum it everytime I do a water change.

 

[mr_X]

those are tube worms. add dry sand (rinsed well) . don't bother with "live sand". dry sand will become live in no time at all and that bag live sand is questionable at best.

 

[Smarkalan83]

If.I.dump it in will it.harm the fish until settled?

 

[Smarkalan83]

Also with adding the sand what is the best way to.add it if it is dry sand and if I add live sand....obviously I should shut off power head...

 

[mr_X]

live sand is a waste of money. there is no easy way to add sand to the tank now. it's definitely going to cloud the water. i would rinse it well, and put it in a container, like a cup or fish net, and slowly lower it to the bottom and dump it out gently.
it shouldn't hurt the fish, but i wonder if covering up all of those tube worms will kill them and cause some kind of spike. probably not, but i would have a water change on hand for after the addition of the sand anyway, to remove the cloudy water.