Gas build up in gravel

Hey folks.

I have recently noticed during my weekly clean that when I vacuum the gravel there seems to be a huge amount of gas built up. I have been keeping fish for many years and have not had this before.

As the water is pulling through the siphon it pulls a lot of bubbles out of the sand. I vacuum weekly so I cant see there being that much crap in the gravel to cause this.

The tank is full of haps that love digging in the gravel but obviously dont disturb it enough to free the gas.

Is this a common thing or is it rather odd? what gas could it be and should I be worried? The tank only has one small plant in it.

The tank is healthy despite a recent bloom of BBA which I am fighting back with less light.

What you think?

 

What gravel you using? To fine gravel and it will become anaerobic....

 

Pool filter gravel. about 2mm - 3mm

 

That should not br the probkem.... How much plants do you have? Co2?

 

Hi mate. Yes this gas is a very serious problem it is very toxic to fish. If the substrate is to thick and there is not enough water circulation then this gas will build up over time. Well a few things you can do now is poke the substrate every time you do a water change also, if you have plants get some plants that have long root systems to move that substrate around.

Hope this helps.

 

I vacuum every week with my water changes already. Growing plants that my haps will not destroy is quite a challenge. I currently have a single plant that they dont seem keen on eating but the BBA almost wiped it out. The gravel thickness is 2cm - 5cm

I have 4 x T5 tubes to show off the colour of the fish but the algae went wild under those conditions. I now run only 1 x 2ft plant spectrum T8 for about 5 hours a day when I am home looking at the fish. The plant has 4 new leaves on that at this stage dont have any algae on, so it looks like the algae is on the retreat.

This plant has the most amazing root system I have ever seen and i cant ever pull this thing out so the fish dont stand a chance. Pic of plant below, I think is a pretty common thing but i dont know the name.

 

Your plant is an Amazon Sword (Echinodorus). Maybe give Java Ferns a try. They tie onto wood and apparantly are really bitter tasting.

I think if your gravel is normal pfs it is 0.4-0.8mm. I have this as well as a 4-8mm version and I get bubbles in the smaller grain sized gravel. Be careful with poking/pushing your gravel vac into the subs as it can release these nasties into your water column. What I found works quite well is to push the vac right down almost onto the base glass and wait for the water to run clear before lifting and moving to the next spot. I only get about a third of the subs done this way per wc so I try to do a different portion of the tank each time.

HTH