Gas Pockets! What Do I Do?!

[christylee]

Well....I think I have found the route to all of my problems I've had lately. Gas pockets in my sand bed.

I never thought in a million years I would have this issue...I only have 2" of sand that I thought I was stirring up pretty well when I do water changes...

but tonight while I was doing a water change I decided to move some plants around. Low and behold I pulled a plant out of this one corner in my tank and all underneath it was black sand. At first I thought this was due to my flourish tabs but my cichlids used to make those things surface and I never saw black sand as a result from them. Anyway I know this was a gas pocket because it smelt like sulfur.

ugh! I thought plants are supposed to help prevent this??

ANYWAY, my question is what do I do now? I don't want to go in there moving everything around risking my whole tanks life..but having gas pockets hiding on me isn't a good option either! I was considering just siphoning out that whole corner (sand included). But I'm afraid to release more of this gas into the water column.

Help!

 

[Byron]

I had this very thing once.  Only in one tank, for some reason, and the sand was shallow, no more than 1.5 inches at the deepest.  The "black" appeared right near the front where it was only about half an inch, and spread even on the surface.  I've never had this in my other five sand substrate tanks, and I don't poke into the sand as I have plants.  Some anaerobic patches are actually good, there is another set of bacteria at work here and it is part of a healthy substrate.  I'm sure I have this under chunks of wood and slabs of rock, but the trick is never to dig it up.  I've also seen this with gravel too, by the way.
 
Once you disturb it, it is best to clean it.  I use the Python water changer and just dig right down and leave it until all the black is pulled up the tube and out, then move over and repeat.  A bit of sand may get sucked up too, but I find not much; most will settle back down in the Python.
 
Byron.

 

[LyraGuppi]

OOhh, that's what my black sand is....thank you Christy Lee and Byron!