Strange spot in Gravel, what next!

[bgourami320]

Has anyone ever seen something like this? It wasn't there last night.
I stayed home from work today and just walked in to check out the fish
and paint the back of a 40b and saw this! I recently had some milky water
in there, fixed that and now this. Could it be too much sand and gravel? It's
been quite awhile since I've seen any MTS, could it be they died under the gravel?
I have absolutely now idea and I'm afraid to stir it up at this point. Anyone
have any ideas?

 

[bgourami320]

No ideas anyone?

 

[Kaosu]

looks like a dead pocket something is rotting in there be it food,plants, snails, or something like that.

means you need to stir your sand more or get more MTS snails.

but im not sure how to get rid of it at this point.. when i first set up my sand i had a few pockets under a log turn like that, i did a huge water change and while it was low i stirred it up and took out most of the black sand..it stunk pretty badly...hopefully someone who knows more about it will chime in soon!.

good luck

 

[RisiganL.]

I second the idea of a dead spot. Looks like it is the growth of some anaerobic bacteria. Stir it up or you can have a toxic gas eruption in your tank.

 

[digitalphrage]

I don't know exactly how deep the sand bed is, but from the photo (and based on my assumptions about the size of the plastic rim and vals) your sand doesn't look like the depth is a problem, so I wouldn't worry about that.

All that being said, I have no idea what it is. If it were my tank, I wouldn't be too concerned. It could very well be a fungal or bacterial bloom, possibly from a dead snail. However, as long as your water parameters are fine, it's highly unlikely to cause any issues.

As far as stirring it up, I'd probably also avoid doing that. I doubt it would cause an issue...the main thing to worry about would be the gases exuded by anaerobic bacteria. I don't think your sand bed is deep enough for that to be a concern, I also don't think anaerobic bacteria would cause visible coloration like that, and there's no visible gas pocket (the deadly part).

 

[biggdadyapisto]

you could always while doing a water change take your fish and put them in a holding tank with water from this tank. while the water is low stir it and aerate the water for a while till the smell go's away. it shouldn't take too long to gas off.

 

[bgourami320]

thank you everyone for your input I heard you have to "comb" the sand, and when I first
started the tank I would take a fork and run it through the sand, actually only half the tank is sand
the rest is gravel. I was thinking about doing a water change and scooping the bad part out. I hope
I can catch the fish and get them out, if I can't I'll do what Kaosu did and we'll see what happens.
Thanks again everyone for your help!