Gas Bubbles

[nigaharu]

Malaysian trumpet snails! they burrow into the sand during the day, stirring the sand up and come out at night to feed on leftovers. I barely noticed they were even there. I rarely had hydrogen sulfide bubbles.

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Might be eaten by my loaches


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[boldtogether]

No , only when the substrate goes aerobic . Basically not enough oxygenated water is circulating, causing and diferent type of bacteria to form in the bottom most layer of the substrate. Hence the advice for stirring up the gravel with wc.
If it smells of rotten eggs then its hydrogen sulphide gas and yes , its toxic.

If the bubbling part is localised and not spread thoroughout the tank, then bury a long airstone / strip in the sand and run air through it continously.

Using a 3-4 mm gravel helps prevent this to a great extent compared to fine grained sand.

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First off, the term is anaerobic and second, if your sand is producing gas bubbles, it doesn't have to smell like rotten eggs (hydrogen sulfide) to be toxic.
Natural gas(methane) is toxic to fish and it is odorless. Stirring the substrate is really the only way to keep a deep sand bed from gassing. If you don't like stirring the sand bed occasionally, the other thing to do is reduce the depth of the sand bed/substrate.
Having a deep sand bed has its advantages. One advantage is nitrate removal. The anaerobic bacteria present in a deep sand bed aren't necessarily methane producing bacteria. More often, they are the type that feed on nitrate. If these are the bacteria present in your sand bed, the gas they are producing by reducing nitrate is nitrogen, harmless, odorless and a good sign all is well in the completion of the denitrification process.

 

[nigaharu]

First off, the term is anaerobic and second, if your sand is producing gas bubbles, it doesn't have to smell like rotten eggs (hydrogen sulfide) to be toxic.
Natural gas(methane) is toxic to fish and it is odorless. Stirring the substrate is really the only way to keep a deep sand bed from gassing. If you don't like stirring the sand bed occasionally, the other thing to do is reduce the depth of the sand bed/substrate.
Having a deep sand bed has its advantages. One advantage is nitrate removal. The anaerobic bacteria present in a deep sand bed aren't necessarily methane producing bacteria. More often, they are the type that feed on nitrate. If these are the bacteria present in your sand bed, the gas they are producing by reducing nitrate is nitrogen, harmless, odorless and a good sign all is well in the completion of the denitrification process.

Thank you! I'm really learning.


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[projectile]

Anaerobic , correct ! Typo on my part.

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[Dave62]

Resurrecting this old post - how do you know if the bubbles are good bubbles (nitrogen) or bad bubbles (Methane or sulfide)? I’m using PFS 2-3 inches deep. I don’t stir but give the main part a good vacuum every week during we time. I see from time to time little micro bubbles floating up from the sand also wonder if they could be a problem. I don’t smell anything also they don’t seem to bother my RH Tapajos. They love to dig through the sand although not really very deep yet. I would appreciate any thoughts.

 

[Dave62]

Here’s are picture of my little guys.

 

[duanes]

Resurrecting this old post - how do you know if the bubbles are good bubbles (nitrogen) or bad bubbles (Methane or sulfide)? I’m using PFS 2-3 inches deep. I don’t stir but give the main part a good vacuum every week during we time. I see from time to time little micro bubbles floating up from the sand also wonder if they could be a problem. I don’t smell anything also they don’t seem to bother my RH Tapajos. They love to dig through the sand although not really very deep yet. I would appreciate any thoughts.

If when they are released, if the bubbles smell like rotten eggs, they are from hydrogen sulfide gas, which as said before in the thread, toxic.

 

[kno4te]

Resurrecting this old post - how do you know if the bubbles are good bubbles (nitrogen) or bad bubbles (Methane or sulfide)? I’m using PFS 2-3 inches deep. I don’t stir but give the main part a good vacuum every week during we time. I see from time to time little micro bubbles floating up from the sand also wonder if they could be a problem. I don’t smell anything also they don’t seem to bother my RH Tapajos. They love to dig through the sand although not really very deep yet. I would appreciate any thoughts.

If ur vacuuming then the bubbles maybe trapped air. The geos love to dig and it’ll help. Like Duanes has mentioned already ur fish wouldn’t be alive, paraphrasing.

 

[Dave62]

Yeah, I've read about the rotten egg smell. I suppose when that occurs it's too late? But 'boldtogether' also mentioned the potential build up of odorless methane. I wonder how common that is? I'm kind of worried about the areas of the tank I don't reach building up and slowly leaking into the water. Would activated carbon take care of any trace toxic gas leaked? Sorry for all the questions and Thank You for replying.