I found anareobic gas pockets in my gravel... what to do?

[fishcatch22]

I just ran my hands through the gravel and did a huge PWC. anything else I should do to make sure my fish don't get poisoned?? I can't exactly tear down the tank, and it's not easy to do a real gravel vac on my tank without messing everything up. looks like i've got some work to do....

[Rbishop]

If nothing else yoy need to probe the entire surface and help things to release. In tight quarters you might try using a plastic fork with long tines.

[liv2padl]

it that were my tank, i'd give it a thorough gravel vac with a Python. if you've got anaerobic pockets developing, you've got big problems and sooner or later are going to have a major die-off. while it may "mess everything up", you need to do it ... now.

[Shocker6966]

H2S is a normal byproduct of decay. Anyone who has been to the everglades can attest to this. The danger lies in letting H2S build up. Low concentration, short term exposure is harmless, but long term exposure can have chronic effects and high concentrations are lethal. Get all the bubbles out, get rid of all the mulm you can that is trapped deep in your gravel, do a couple water changes and from there, just keep an eye on things and you should be fine. If you have excessively deep gravel, you can remove some to ensure you don't get any future bubbling.

[Dangerdoll]

as far as experience is concerned, I would follow the actions Liv suggested because I too had this problem several years ago and not knowing what this was, I wasn't very careful with exposing the bubbles and I had a major devestation of the tank. It was a very established 55 gallon that I was very proud of as people admired it. Everything in the tank died except 1 pleco, so extreme caution should be used.

[fishcatch22]

I think I figured out where the bacteria came from. although i'm sure i've had zero oxygen pockets for a while now, they have only recently started to form. I figure this is because I have just begun supplementing nitrates for my plants, as I noticed the bubbles a week ago, just as I was beginning to supplement my tank. I got all the gas stuck in the gravel out last night, and gave those nasty bacs a huge blast of deadly oxygen, so I suppose all i need to do is stop adding nitrates to the tank and this problem will be done with. although I have never done an official gravel vac, at each PWC I stir up parts of the gravel so the crap goes into the water column, and then suck it all up with my siphon hose.