Air bubbles in substrate

[New2Salt]

Boy, I feel like a postaholic today, but here goes....

I've noticed lately we have a lot of air bubbles in/under the live sand, is this a good thing or a bad thing? We also seem to have some on top of the sand, the only way I know this is we are have a slight problem with algae on top of the sand and you can see the air bubbles just sitting on top of the algae, I've tried turkey baster to blow them off, but they just come back. Everytime the hermits pick at the algae a load of bubbles float up. Currently we are running two power heads and a skimmer.

thanks for the help

 

[reefrunner69]

I've noticed lately we have a lot of air bubbles in/under the live sand, is this a good thing or a bad thing?

It's a good thing. It is nitrogen gas. That means there is denitrification happening in your sand bed...WooHoo

We also seem to have some on top of the sand, the only way I know this is we are have a slight problem with algae on top of the sand and you can see the air bubbles just sitting on top of the algae,

This is not the same thing, IMO. This is actually oxygen bubbles produced by the algae. To help turn the top layer of sand and aid in the algae forming...I would recommend: tigertail cuke, nassarius snails, fighting and/or queen conchs and mini brittle stars.

 

[New2Salt]

Cool then about the bubbles under the sand, as far as the above we have had to take most of it off by hand, the blue leg hermits seem to be going at it but that's about it, we have a few turbos and a few astreas and some of the snails that are shown below that seem to leave little egg sacks all over my glass :/

In the below pic is this a nassarius snail?

Thanks for the good news Kevin! like the little dancing guy

 

[reefrunner69]

I'm not sure what yours is, but it doesn't look like a nassarius snail. Nassarius will stay buried in the upper layer of the sandbed with just their breathing tube sticking out an then come up for food. Their digging and then climbing back out helps keep that top layer of sand turned over. They are carrionivores, they are like snail buzzards they clean up the left overs

here is a nassarius

 

[New2Salt]

Ok cool, more snails to get! The pic I showed that snail does bury itself in the sand next to the glass but I've never seen it eat anything dead but then the star seems to eat any molted shells. We'll have to check into the snails thanks!

 

[New2Salt]

One more question, the conchs how many would you suggest, we only have a 29 gallon, they would have plenty of sand area and would you suggest Queen or Fighting? Thanks Kevin!

 

[reefrunner69]

I'd probably get 2 or three fighting conchs. If I remember correctly...they don't get nearly as big as the queens.

 

[New2Salt]

Ok great, thanks Kevin!