Planted Tanks With Sand Bottoms

[FISHSHROD]

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

 

[FSM]

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.

 

[Sounguru]

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.

View attachment 113882

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.

 

[mel_20_20]

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.



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?

 

[plantbrain]

With CO2:

Regards,
Tom Barr

 

[mel_20_20]

Wow!!! Tom.... beautiful!

 

[tekonus]

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.

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.

 

[aquanooby]

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

 

[FishBliss]

FishRod's tank with the light blue background is so pretty. I like it.

 

[CrimsonBlush]

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!