Ahh! Anerobic Gas!

[Captain Hook]

Today I picked up my piece of driftwood in the heavily planted tank and it smelled like a bad egg. I guess I released some aneobric gas into the tank. A did a pretty big water change after and all the fish seemed ok.

Would getting some kuhli loaches help solve this problem? I don't want to have to pick up the wood every once in a while. Any suggestions on how to avoid this in the future?

 

[zin]

clean the gravel alot is pretty much the only way to avoid it

 

[Gunnie]

I almost lost my whole tank of fish before I even knew there was a problem, and the advice given was since I was starting the tank completely over, to get some knitting needles and poke around where you don't normally vacuum the gravel so the pockets of this stuff are minimized. It was recommended to do this every time you clean your tank.

 

[daveedka]

I'm no expert, because I always run a RFUG on my tanks, but There was a thread a few days ago that discussed the fact that if you don't disturb the anerobic pockets, they are not detrimental, but if disturbed they release toxins into the tank. In other words, if you have them don't disturb them, if you don't try to prevent them by disturbing the substrate . I am sure people with more expertise will weigh in. Just my thoughts.

 

[mome rath]

Mmmmm love those methanogens. Did it smell like rotten eggs or flatus (er, "passed gas") i.e. hydrogen sulfide or methane?

 

[daveedka]

http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=25594

Here is the shortcut to the thread I was talking about.

 

[DEmigh]

Originally posted by mome rath
Mmmmm love those methanogens. Did it smell like rotten eggs or flatus (er, "passed gas") i.e. hydrogen sulfide or methane?

In last month's Discover magazine, the cover story was about huge pockets of methane building up on the slope of the continental shelf. When they "burp" (or whatever else :sick: )
they can supposedly trigger mudslides that can cause tsunamis. I'll have to dig up that issue again.

 

[Captain Hook]

Thanks for all the info so far. The knitting needles are a good idea. I'm going to try to get some malaysian trumpet snails cause I heard they do a pretty good job of stirring up the gravel.

 

[RTR]

Despite the many tales to the contrary, MTS are as oxygen-limited as any fish - they will not dig below the aerobic zone of the gravel.

I would not use knitting needles on any substrate I suspected of already being anoxic and producing noxious materials - as has already been implied. H2S and such will generally not make it to the water column, as they get oxidized as they seep upward. Digging down without removal is likely to cause a release which could be troublesome. Unless you are ready to do serial total water changes if there are problems, don't stir large areas.

Pythoning slowly and deeply in highly resticted areas is safer. Too much organic mater in areas not loaded with roots is a potential time bomb. So can be old undivided dense stands of plants even with heavy roots (Swords, Crypts, etc.) - say areas over 3 years old.

 

[Captain Hook]

Interesting. Good to know RTR. The only area I have to worry about anerobic buildup is under a piece of driftwood I have. I think the snails will do an ok job of stopping buildup because the gravel is quite shallow underneath.