having a issue with a dirted tank. In short I used miracle grow organic. sifted it added it added water and clay, sat for a day or two, capped with black sand and from day 2-3 area of capping to now 2ish weeks later anytime I touch the ground TONS of "air" bubbles come up dirtying the tank what happned and how do I keep this from happening on my next dirt tank?
Help with my dirt tank
- Thread starter Nate Dogg
- Start date
It sounds like your sand cap isn't thick enough maybe? I did a similar 40L dirt was maybe .5 thick cap was about 2-3 inches of sand. It been running for about a year now and I still get air bubbles I'm told if it doesn't smell like sulfur I'm ok it's O2 from the plants. I have MTS snails in there so they dig around I poke around in it from time to time when bubbles come up but the tank doesn't get dirty.
I think I have 1 inch of dirt then sand and today (now a month later sorry for the time delay took my first post off of facebook) I pushed down on all of the sand and got a TON of bubbles completely clouded the water. The substright was soft as bread dough.
I've been running dirt under gravel in my tanks for a few years now. From my experience, sand is too fine and acts like a lid to the C02 that the organics in the soil produce. A coarser cap, 2-5 mm would be better. You also want the cap to be coarse enough that mulm will fall between the particles instead of just sit on top.
This is common with dirted tanks, they're anaerobic pockets of air which build up in the bottom layer of substrate for about the first 6 months. I always used a straightened out metal hanger to poke around the tank when I was going with a dirted tank. If they are left to build up in the substrate they'll have a rotten smell once released, and can possibly kill fish, shrimp, etc... which is why I always used the hanger to poke the substrate every day for the first week and a half.
Anaerobic decay is where bacteria consume the organic material without using oxygen but producing gases such as hydrogen sulphide. and these gases can wipe out your tank if left to build up for periods of time..
Anaerobic decay is where bacteria consume the organic material without using oxygen but producing gases such as hydrogen sulphide. and these gases can wipe out your tank if left to build up for periods of time..
cool thank you, instead of poking the soil couldn't I just put the dirt in a bucket add water and mix it every few days till the gasses stop. only reason for this is the next tank is a 120 with a canopy and would be a bit of a hassle?
It can take up 6 months to a year for the gas pockets to stop forming, putting it in a bucket wouldn't really do anything. The best alternative is to either poke around the substrate every couple of days for a week or two in order to release the pockets, or choose another substrate like flourite, eco-come, etc.... I've come to notice that in my tanks when I went with dirt that by poking around every couple of days got rid of almost all of the big gas pockets, and the little pockets would sneak through the substrate and bubble up to the top of the water.
Because by poking around the substrate would allow for pockets of air to escape, that these areas were not as "packed" as the other areas that weren't "poked", and small pockets would use the same areas to escape.
Because by poking around the substrate would allow for pockets of air to escape, that these areas were not as "packed" as the other areas that weren't "poked", and small pockets would use the same areas to escape.
