Sulfur Dioxide Issue

[Josh]

Hey everyone,

 

I was wondering if anyone might have an answer for me on this issue. I currently have a 12 gallon jbj nano reef tank (with live sand and live rock) and I believe I have a sulfur dioxide problem. Over the last 3 months (after I moved to a new house) my tanks water becomes cloudy and a white slime begins to grow all over my glass and rocks. In addition, my tank begins to produce a rotten egg smell. At first I thought it could be that something that is dead in my tank that is causing this smell. So after doing a few water changes and trying to find what could be dead (I had found nothing dead in my tank) I was able to remove the rotten egg smell and get my water to not become cloudy. In about 2 weeks my tank decided to do this again. I had taken this issue to a few of local aquarium stores in the DC area and everyone said that I need to do a complete water change and replace my live sand. Once again, after doing what everyone said my tank decided to cloud up again and the rotten egg smell began to develop and now any live critters I had in my tank (snails, one serpent star fish and one peppermint shrimp) has died.

 

I am extremely baffled and not sure what is causing this issue. I have checked all the nitrate, pH, salinity and ammonia levels and everything is great, nothing out of whack. I have been putting in a lot of money into getting my tank up and running again, but it keeps flipping on me. Does anyone have any suggestions on what is causing this issue? I thought maybe my live rock could be dead? The sponge in back of nano tank needs to be replace even though I ring out my sponge on a weekly basis and do water changes on a weekly basis? I look forward to anyone

[flowerseller]

With the little info in regards to this,

I guess it has to do with circulation resulting in not enough gas exchange.

What are the water test results? PH in particular .

Do you have live rock?

 

In addition to ringing out the sponge, rinse it well in fresh water and rering it before replacing it.

 

Tell us about circulation too.

[BeltwayBandit]

Bob Fenner has this to say on the issue: "<I really don't think you need to be too concerned about this. Some sulfurous gasses are a natural product of the anaerobic processes in the DSB. They seldom rise to toxic levels. If you have good circulation and are doing some careful superficial stirring (manual or with critters that stir) and ill gasses produced will be released so gradually as to not be toxic. Your use of carbon, PolyFilter and water changes will help a great deal. There is some more information scattered around WWM. Search on sulfur, Sulphur and sulfide for info.>"

 

Which leads me to second Chip's question. What is your circulation like and what critters do you have in the sandbed?