Any worries with deep substrate?

[dapellegrini]

Long before I decided to take the plunge into expensive T5's and CO2 injection I thought it was a good idea to mix a bunch of Flourite in with my gravel.

I probably have 4x 20lb sacks of Flourite (that is the red clay stuff, right?) mixed in with my gravel, which has made for a pretty deep substrate overtime. In the deepest areas, it may be 5 inches... The red Flourite has pretty much settled under the gravel (at least the finer stuff).

Should I thin it out? Any risks of having deep substrate? Should I consider replacing all of it with something better (I tremble at the idea... that would be a HUGE undertaking)...

TIA

 

[zacusmaximus]

Buy more tanks, seed new tanks with excess substrate, problem solved...lol.

 

[dapellegrini]

The thought has crossed my mind... I certainly would not throw it away... Just put it in "storage"... I am actually thinking of starting a reef tank as aquarium #2 this time around.

There was a day when I had 6 or 7 tanks, but then I got married and my wife was not so thrilled with the idea...

 

[gheitman]

The only danger I can see with a substrate 5" deep with Flourite on the bottom is that your plants that are root feeders may have some initial difficulty getting to the nutrients locked up in the Flourite. I don't think you need to thin it out, but you may want to provide some supplemental nourishment in the form of Flourish Tabs. I have three tanks with Flourite (anywhere from 2" to 5" deep) and add Flourish Tabs.

 

[dapellegrini]

I heard somewhere that bad gasses can build up in the deeper layers and if disturbed can become a problem. Seems to make since. I don't ever disturb more than the top 2 inches when cleaning, but you can see through the glass that towards the bottom it get's very black and murky/dirty looking and the glass looks dirty.

 

[mr funktastic]

there is a wonderful little creature that takes care of it for u and is pretty much free to anyone..... MTS! or malaysian trumpet snails. they burrow into your sybstarte and eat all the gunk andeverything down there while stiring it up for u. they breed like crazy but do not lay eggs. they are live bearers. and they only eat dead plant matter(if u were worried about your plants) they rarely ever come out when the lights are on and most snail eating fish(like loaches) dont or cant eat them becasue there shells are incedible hard. best and easiest way to solve your problem.

 

[Purrbox]

If you like the deeper substrate you just need to keep it stirred, either manually or having MTS do it for you, and you should be able to avoid the pockets of gas forming. To manually stir just use a chopstick or something similar to work into the substrate and move things around a bit.

 

[gheitman]

I have MTS in four of my tanks. I got them accidentally when they hitched a ride on some plants and I have since spread them to other tanks specifically because I wanted the substrate stirred up. I'm actually giving some to my LFS since I have plenty

 

[dapellegrini]

I have some unidentified snails in my tank that may be what you are talking about. For some reason my corys and loaches don't bother then and they seem to come out in force at night. I have smashed a few and they have very tough shells. I see them on my plants from time to time but they seem to just be eating the algea on the ends...

I will take a picture tonight when I get home and post it up for identification... Now I am intrigued...

 

[CaptnIgnit]

If you can describe the shell, someone should be able to guess it.

Like MTS have a cone shaped shell that spirals down (hence the trumpet in their name). Pond snails have a Big dome with a small spiral towards the back of the shell. And ramshorn have one big spiral that makes a circle (think nautilus type shell).

 

[dapellegrini]

I think they have a cone shaped / pointed shell... They are maybe 1/8" long at the largest... and they are lighter colored...

All of that is from memory though, so I best check with reality this evening to confirm.

/EDIT/

Well, the snails are VERY small and my Sony Point-and-shoot has a real hard time getting a good picture. So I pulled a few out of the tank, put them under a 10x magifying glass and then took these pictures. Not a lot better, and the one with the rule is blurry, but should give an idea of the size. This is as big as the get.

They don't look nearly that dark in the tank, but that may be because of the bright light and the fact that they are very small...

Also added a couple pics of the substrate issue, with some dark muck grown on the glass in the deepest areas...

 

[fish_4_all]

Well the "gunk" looks like (diatoms) BGA, perfectly common if there is some silica in there and could be from the flourite. The snails should keep it in check. As for the snails, they don't quite look like MTS that I have seen but could be. What they are I couldn't even speculate if they aren't MTS so hopefully someone else can.

The substrate doesn't look too deep but might cause problems later if you don't have MTS stirring it up really well or if you don't sitr it well once in a while. Other than that, if your plants grow well and fish don't seem to suffer why change it? Also, about the gas that forms sometimes, if it stinks like rotten eggs it is bad. I get a gas release everytime I gravel vac and it never has an odor so shouldn't be the bad stuff. Where it comes from I don't know but it is always there.

 

[mr funktastic]

look like mts to me.

 

[Purrbox]

Those are MTS. There are a few different varieties, and your just happens to be one that we don't see as often.

 

[dapellegrini]

Very cool. I didn't even know what MTS were until this thread... Nor diatoms (thought that was a saltwater thing)... These snails are tiny. The largest are 1/8 inch. I guess I should quit squishing them!

Oh, and that is the deepest area of the substrate. In the past I have used the excess with larger rocks to create hills and valleys. Planted aquariums are soooo much more fun and interesting than simple fish tanks!