Planted Tanks With Sand Bottoms

Playsand from Lowes prolly a couple or so years , don't stir or clean the sand.

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Both my planted tanks have sand in them. One has some flourite, but mostly just for the aesthetic appeal, I doubt it is actually doing anything.
 
I have play sand and I'm worried about the possiblilty of Hydrogen sulfide gas pockets. Do you guys stir the bottom, or have MTS. How do you deal with this issue?

I hope this isn't a hijack; I think it is germane to the topic.

Here's my 40 gallon breeder.

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This is a couple of weeks old. The plants have grown so much I need to do some serious trimming.

MTS or Long Nose snails do the trick. Also plants that root by runners will break up pockets as the runners go out.
 
Well... I've seen the runners from the underneath. I was crawling in my tank stand cabinet to see if I could see signs of hydrogen sulfide and I saw runners, but I also saw black areas. Here's a photo I took from underneath the tank.

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Am I in serious trouble? The black areas are near a dense planting of Anachris, and I see a few runners there, but not many. Am I about to have a noxious erruption, do you think?

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With CO2:

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Regards,
Tom Barr
 
Wow!!! Tom.... beautiful!
 
I just realized I never posted a pic in my own thread. I will have to take a new one when I get home from work today, but here is an old one I had in my photo gallery.
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It is from a few months ago when I first added the background. A bit has changed. Will update in a few hours when I get home.
 
tom bar is a tank pimp i aspire to ever come even close to the looks of what ive seen him do ... mad props rom
 
Mel~I've had the same problem! I have been scooping black sand out! Suggestions anyone?

Here's my little 10 gallon. I don't know why it always looks so green in photos! Believe it or not, the backround is light blue!

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