mixing the sand with fingers

[miked78231]

you guys said it was a bad idea to shift your fingers through the sand so you can kick all that stuff that just lays on the bottom right. well i just did it so i can syphon most of that crap out for a water change but the water is like a yellowish color. what the crap did i do!?!?

[captexas]

Um . . .the water is yellowish because you stirred up all the junk from the sandbed. Are you talking about the water in the tank or the water you siphoned off? Moving the sand around will also put sand in the water column and make it cloudy until the sand settles again.

[miked78231]

it just seems more yellow then normal. it almost seemed like there was a thick yellow solution. im not sure if i heard this right but there is some kind of chemical or somthing that sits at the bottom of the tank under the sand and if you stirr that up into the tank it could be bad for the fish.

[GaryP]

You stirred up all the detritus, bacteria, and nutrients that was trapped in your sand bed and released it into the water. I bet your protein skimmer went crazy afterwards.

[miked78231]

lol, yea. this is somthing i shouldnt do then. i thought that it might be good to syphon all the stuff out. my skimmer isnt all that great so i thought i would give it a hand.

[GaryP]

The yellow stuff is probably sulfur.

[Thunderkat]

Running your fingers through sand is also a bad idea due to bristle worms. To me it feels like broken glass in your hands when you touch them.

Sand also grows bacteria and that tends to lend a yellowish tint to water, kind of like when you use a plenum system, to take care of that good skimming combined with activated carbon can make your water crystal clear.