Blasting sand emergency

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VioletEmber

Aquarium Advice Freak
Joined
Jul 8, 2011
Messages
489
Location
SF Bay Area, CA
I bought some pretty "black beauty" black sand for my son's 10g tank. It was in a big bucket and you just scooped it up yourself so there was no label on it.
We had guppies and a female Betta and a mystery snail. When we changed the gravel to the sand we had a mini-cycle and I didn't catch it in time and we lost some guppies. And the mystery snails too.

Fast forward- I suddenly realized that I might have gotten the blasting sand that I've seen mentioned. The betta looked like she had a weird injury on her mouth and I was still confused why the mystery snails died. Sure enough "black beauty" is blasting sand.

We got two new mystery snails - should I take them out? Should I take the sand out and get regular sand? What do I need to know about the iron content? Ack! Help!
 
I have never used it, but I know of a member here who uses black beauty in all of his tanks... and his tanks are beautiful. He had planted tanks, community tanks, and cichlid tanks using it as substrate. I never heard him mention any concerns with Fe content.

I would lean more towards the water parameters causing the issues here... is the ammonia/trite back to 0 now?
 
+1 on the blasting sand being completely safe. Did you rinse it well before putting it into the tank? It does tend to need A LOT of rinsing.

I have also read that it has iron in it.....which for me has only been a GREAT thing. Live plants love it. :)
 
Whew! Yes, the params are back to normal now thank goodness. I just read somewhere that the sharpness of the blasting sand might be harsh on sand sifting creatures. And hooray for the iron being good for the plants! They are looking quite healthy these days!
 
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