Possible bacterial bloom? (pic)

[Kydra]

I just removed most of the substrate. A ton of work. There is still some sub on the sides and bottom I need to clean out. How should I clean inside the tank? Have a family member going to get new playsand and EE now.

When I got to the bottom of the tank... I feel like vomiting. The smell is atrocious. Omg.

Put the crabs in the old 10 gallon with a hideout and some climby thing that I wasn't using for now until I finish this. Was it just adding too much water when I first set up? It was more moist than I wanted. Will not be doing that again.

Slowly working through this. Not what I expected for my Saturday night!!! Any other info to help out or for prevention please post as I'll be checking in with breaks and all while doing this. Thank you all.

[Kydra]

It can take up a bit of a Saturday Arvo, and be a bit of heavy lifting and whatnot.... but it's rather simple, straightforward and in a way, very relaxing.

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Relaxing!!! I can't. Lol. I'm struggling and just getting started.

[Kydra]

Ok... So with all the old substrate out of the tank... Once again... Now what?? Do I have to clean the tank with anything special before adding new substrate? Going to keep saying thank you!!!

[Kydra]

Is there a care sheet here or guide on this. I'm kinda stuck as I want to clean inside the tank, but unsure what to use?? Appreciate the help here.

[wodesorel]

The last time I had one go it smelled like mothballs. I thought the classic rotting egg was bad, but 50 gallons of mothball sand was atrocious!

If you really want to be sure it's sterile, use bleach to wash the tank. If rinsed well it won't leave any residue behind. Because I am a mess with bleach, I usually just use dish soap and then rinse well because a good scrub is enough. If I can work outside then I use ammonia because it does the best job, but the smell will knock you out.

It was probably just that there was too much moisture when it was first mixed, or too much moisture was added into the tank and it settled.

If mixing EE bricks, use half the water it says to and make it as hot as possible. Cover the bucket/bowl with plastic wrap. It takes about a half hour to completely fluff and you might need a touch more water, but that will keep it at the right consistency for mixing. You can always add water to the mixture afterwards.

I also always use drinking strength saltwater to mix my substrate. The salt helps to stave off bacterial and mold growth.

Another thing is to make sure it's as evenly mixed as possible. Sand compacts and EE grows bacteria well, so if you get a pocket of EE under a pocket of sand, it's a perfect location if it gets even a little too wet.

Don't press down the substrate, make sure it's as fluffy as possible! This will allow for air exchange.

[Kydra]

Thank you so much! Going to just use dish soap as I'm working in a bedroom here.

Family member got the loose EE rather than the bricks. Drinking strength saltwater? Might be just semantics, but are you referring to something besides the usual instant ocean half cup/gallon mix?

Thanks again!

[aussieJJDude]

Drinking strength = what we mix up for crabs....

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[Kydra]

Thank you again. My back hurts lol. Tank is clean. Going to add in the playsand and EE. Obviously, I messed up with too much saltwater last time and not sure I can do this again lol.

This may seem like an odd question, but for 6" of substrate in a 20 gallon long tank, any idea of how much water I should be adding (gallon wise)?

The first set up was too much, buy no water at the bottom and held consistency and all of that so just trying to get a better idea if possible.

[wodesorel]

Without EE, I think I did 1/2 gallon water per bag of sand.

[Kydra]

I'm finally finished mostly. Hopefully I did enough. I dug down to the bottom of the temp 10 gallon which smells too; will deal with it later. Just can't right now lol.

Obviously I had an issue of oversaturating the substrate. Really thought that it's too dry right now, but it held the straw test and humidity slowly going back up with seran wrap over top. Got it right this time.

Thank you all again! Would have never known if I didn't ask here.

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[Kydra]

Oh and the one crab did dig himself down into the 10 gallon substrate which I also believe is messed up so I just dipped him in dechlor freshwater. I know he's stressed and going to dig down right now into the fixed tank. Hopefully this does NOT happen again. Think I am just paranoid after all of that about bacteria spreading, but who knows. Appreciate all the help.

[Kydra]

Last update. I changed out the 10 gallon which def also had bacterial bloom starting on the one side and also dumped all of the EE out of the 5 gallon, but that seemed fine.

Still kinda concerned my crab that buried to the bottom of the 10 gallon just put back after I changed everything. Baked it all. Boiled it all, etc. Worried cause he's burying himself in the new set up. Ugh.

Oh and yeah if you are saying half gallon a bag of playsand I way overdid it the fist few times, should be fine now... I hope. As long as nothing still there spreads it should be good now.

[Kydra]

We have had bacterial blooms in 2 tanks. They smell awful. One smelled like rancid ammonia, the other like rotted eggs/sulphur. They were grey and black. It's an unforgettable smell. We lost 2 crabs, one was Eddie that we tied to save. If this is your case, we and other members will help you through the process. But it just may be algae. Use your nose. Smell your substrate.

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Just wanted to apologize here. Was so caught up with how terrible my week has been and wasn't ready to do all of this tonight so just wanted to say sorry about your losses there and thanks.

[Kydra]

I would dig down in one spot and check it. The way it's straddling the line between mostly sand and mostly EE makes me suspicious of bacterial growth. It might be staining or algae, but it doesn't seem right.

You definitely called that one. As much as it sucked to redo everything, thank you!

[Kydra]

Ok. So after having bacterial blooms in both the 10 and 20 gallon long... I am now concerned again. I redid the entire substrate in the 20 long, added about a gallon of saltwater to the sub which was a lot less than I've used before (obviously or my two bacterial blooms wouldn't have happened).

Now I'm kinda back where I started with the humidity being always + 90% and that's with a portion of the mesh lid open as before. Was 1 gallon too much or am I just freaked from what happened?

I now have both sides open to get the humidity down (dropping it to around 80%) and hoping to dry out if it was extra. Apparently my idea of sandcastle consistency is different from others... and I live by the beach lol.

It really seemed much dryer than "sandcastle" to me, but I'm apparently wrong here. Any thoughts?? Am I setting myself up to go through this again?! Thank you all!