What am I supposed to do?

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Sprinkle

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Mar 21, 2020
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what should i do? i have thousands of bubbles in dirt and sand. when i pop them, dirt rises. i wanted to clean the tank but i cant cuz i cant see anything in the tank and i dont want to be stung by one of my corys. D dougall no rude and sarcastic things please, i am genuinely anxious now..

20210417_131556.jpg
thats how it looks now buy only worse
 

dougall

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Mar 29, 2005
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Understand why I don't like to suggest dirt?

Sigh.

Chances are just the water is dirty,fish should be fine.. but test your water for nitrogen compounds (ammonia , nitrite and nitrate) to make sure there isn't anything affecting that from the soil.

Personally? I would move fish to a different tank, move the filter, move the heater (or tote etc) then clean out your tank and start afresh. Dirt and sand are cheap

Next time start with damp soil so it doesn't trap the air.

Sorry to be so direct, but it's early, and I really did tell you so.

If you insist on using dirt again, do it with it moist.. otherwise use sand with root tabs.
 
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Sprinkle

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ugh no i cant start from scratch... my fish are fine though.

I have read through multiple sources, it comes from bacteria breaking up organic matter down.

To resolve it, poke it with a stick which i did and add multiple mts and should be fine.

What should i do about the rising dirt tho? Add bit more sand? i need to finish Flubendanzole treatment to add the snails.

Yeah I did start out with damp dirt..
 

dougall

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I'm gonna suggest you get info from an expert. Not from me, not from YouTube videos, not from people where you are not confident they are experts.

If you started with damp dirt, I will say either there was problematic stuff in it, or there was not enough sand as a cap.

Sorry to not be more help.
 
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Sprinkle

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dont worry.

like what problematic stuff? there was nothing else... ohhhhh dang..... I where it comes from! there were some pieces of dried up plant and the bacteria started to break it downnn...

so i will just add more sand and stuff. when flubendanzole treatment is finished im adding my MTS to the tank to oxygenate the sand and no worries.

thank you!
 

NoahLikesFish

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As a word of advice, literally don’t touch your tanks substrate if it’s dirted except to plant maybe and do it very slowly
 

NoahLikesFish

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Get a powerhead? What I’d be worried about is anoxic cause that sand looks super compacted ans Not a lot of water would get through. If you get enough circulation your tank will stay clean
 

NoahLikesFish

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You can get them on Amazon for like 5-7$ don’t worry about getting a high tech one, the cheap ones usually last for years
 
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