Nitrogen Bubbles in FW?

[Crepe]

I've heard of people having nitrogen bubbles rising from a DSB in saltwater, heck I've had it happen in my nano years ago before I moved, but I've never heard of nitrogen bubbles in freshwater. My sand is only about 1.5-3" deep and I consistently get bubbles rising directly out of the sand. (tank established about 6 months ago, substrate changed 1 month ago.) I use PFS if that provides any information.

I'm concerned that these bubbles could be something more malicious than N2 like H2S, any comments?

 

[mfdrookie516]

IME, PFS will trap little pockets of air when you first put it in. One way i've found to alleviate this is to take and run a gravel vac over the entire bottom one good time when it is initially set up. Im not saying thats the case for you, but if you did that, and it came back, we'd know for sure that wasnt it.

 

[Crepe]

The sand was added with the tank half full already cup by cup. So i know for a fact that it isn't trapped air. I literally had wet cupfuls of sand and poured them, cups submerged, into the tank.

 

[mfdrookie516]

hmmm, ok. do you stir your sand weekly? I dont, never have, but I know most people do for that very reason.

 

[Crepe]

There's almost literally no room to stir in my tank haha. I've got too many rooted plants. I think it's time to go MTS hunting around the town.

 

[Lowryder]

There's almost literally no room to stir in my tank haha. I've got too many rooted plants. I think it's time to go MTS hunting around the town.

Absolutly. Invest in some MTS. There are plenty of people willing to seel or even give away. MTS are good for the sand and great for roots.

 

[TCool]

I get bubbles from my sand as well that is only a couple inches deep. I'm not super convinced that it is all that bad for my fish because I have a Peacock Eel that is always in the sand (saw him for the first time in at least a month yesterday) and no ill effects to him.

Yesterday, when I saw his tail sticking out I stuck the handle end of my net down in the sand to get him to come out (so I could look at him and see if he still looked healthy) and a good amount of bubbles came out right from where he was. Still ok tho.

 

[Crepe]

Absolutly. Invest in some MTS. There are plenty of people willing to seel or even give away. MTS are good for the sand and great for roots.

I got a few MTS in the tank, they are still tiny and I hope they make lots of babies for me .

 

[ChileRelleno]

We've a very healthy population of MTS in our 55gal... Come get some... Please?

 

[TCool]

We've a very healthy population of MTS in our 55gal... Come get some... Please?

You can send some my way! I live in WI, know anything about shipping those things? If you seriously wanna get rid of some, let me know your price.

 

[ChileRelleno]

Sorry, not shipping, too much hassle... If you lived near Mobile, AL I'd fix ya up.

 

[jsoong]

Another possibility could be CO2 from decaying stuff. As long as the gas doesn't stink, it is prob not H2S. At any rate, MTS is good to have for a sand bottom tank.

 

[Crepe]

Oh, I found out something neat today about FW DSB. Deep Sand Beds

 

[TCool]

Oh, I found out something neat today about FW DSB. Deep Sand Beds

Awesome! Very good read, thanks for posting that.