poison puffer = poison sand?

i get the part about not stirring the sand, but what about my leopard wrasse diving below the surface 1 to 2 times a day? is this going to disturb the tank over time? ive only had him a week now. figured this was as good a place as starting a new thread to answer this question.

 

you should be ok some sand sturring is good. my concern was bc of toxins in the water.

 

Puffers don't generally release toxins in the water when they die, like a box/cow fish. I would test the water for other possible causes, like copper. What type of source water did you use to fill the tank? Did you use conditioned tap water or RO/DI water?

 

it was distilled and conditioned...puffer was ok for about 6months prior.

 

Distilled water can still contain high concentrations of copper, depending on the distilling process. Conditioners dont remove copper contamination, they are designed to neutralize chlorine and chlorimine.
I would suspect that was the cause of the death and the following deaths and not a toxin released by the puffer. Remember that puffers are eaten as sushi in some areas and proper preparing is required or the toxins can kill the person eating it. The toxins are internal and usually not released at death. There could be those exceptional cases, but I would test for copper first. I would highly recommend investing in an RO/DI system though.