Sand?

[Tokis-Phoenix]

The statement "very quickly" though Jayjay is a very vague statement, Bignoses article, although very imformative on the chemistry side of the process, is still just as vague on how quickly such processes take place.

Until you know how quickly they take place in the average aquarium, you cannot safely say that it is safe to just let large pockets of hydrogen sulfide build up in your tank- personally, after my negative experience with hydrogen sulfide, i would rather stir and clean my substrate on a regular once weekly basis than let a gas which is potentially highly lethal to my fish build up in my substrate.

 

[jayjay]

Never killed any of my fish or me I sniffed it etc.

By 'very quickly' I'm thinking seconds......

 

[Torrean]

I personally enjoy running my fingers through my sand but really hydrogen sulfide can be made a non issue with the addition of a couple free mts snails so why worry about it?

 

[Callum]

is it true that if you have less than 2.5cm of sand (depth wise) you will not get the anaerobic conditons as the anaerobic conditions put me off sand then again i dont like gravel and im a cory fan

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Never killed any of my fish or me I sniffed it etc.

By 'very quickly' I'm thinking seconds......

My experience with the oto's was rather quick too (seconds)- there were two oto's cleaning the tank glass in the corner the tank where i myself was cleaning, i disturbed a mass of pockets of the toxic gass in the sand which rose up the corner of the tank where the oto's were stuck to the glass.
I instantly noticed something was wrong as the oto's fell off the glass, like they were stunned. I put them in a net hanging near the filter outlet and increased the current to give them more oxygen, but they were dead within under an hour- the damage had already been done.

 

[Torrean]

yes I believe that is true flame. The oxygen can penetrate to a certain depth. I'm not sure if it's 2.5cm though. I think it's a bit less than that. I'd say 1/2 inch would be fine

 

[jayjay]

I've had 2-3" in places before and never had a problem with fish dieing etc.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

is it true that if you have less than 2.5cm of sand (depth wise) you will not get the anaerobic conditons as the anaerobic conditions put me off sand then again i dont like gravel and im a cory fan

There is definately a noticeable difference- my main tanks substrate is about 3inches thick, while my fry tank (which has the same type of sand) and only about a 1.5cm depth of sand, rarely (if ever) gets anerobic conditions at all- on the other hand, my main tanks substrate get them a lot more often (particually if left un-stirred for more than a week).

 

[Callum]

i dont want to have to sift sand daily or weekly lifting up wood and rocks though and what not. would 1.5cm of sand be ok no plants so less rotting organica matter

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

I've had 2-3" in places before and never had a problem with fish dieing etc.

This has only ever happened to me once the situation i described, and that was the only time i have left the substrate un-stirred for so long, the events were directly connected.
If you've never had a problem with this, then that is great, however i would be very wary of advising people that its fine to let anerobic conditions multiply unchecked as this is certainly not the case for everyone.

 

[Torrean]

1.5cm should be fine. I'll say it once more though. You can have a deeper sand bed if you get some free mts snails from your lfs. They regularly stir my sand which is 2-3" thick and I've never noticed gas bubbles. BTW I do not stir my sand weekly...

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

i dont want to have to sift sand daily or weekly lifting up wood and rocks though and what not. would 1.5cm of sand be ok no plants so less rotting organica matter

Yes that will be fine if you have nothing to cause rotting organic matter in the tank like plants or algae etc and the substrate is not deep .

 

[Callum]

do malasian trumpet snails make a lot of mess and also do they count as fish in the stocking thing and also do they multiply like the freeloader snails on your plants ??

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

do malasian trumpet snails make a lot of mess and also do they count as fish in the stocking thing and also do they multiply like the freeloader snails on your plants ??

They do add to the stocking but a single snail does not create much waste- however they can multiply a lot especially if you have a lot of messy eater fish.

 

[Torrean]

no they don't make much mess...technically they do count sort of. I don't count them and I've had no problems...they only multiply to what you feed...If you feed to much you will have more snails... THey are a good way to tell if your overfeeding... If you see lots of snails then feed less. I feed once everyother day and My fish seem happy and healthy. mts snails are mainly only active at night though so that's when you need to look for them. During the day most of the snails are in the sand stirring it up