Stagnant Substrate.

[TheRedDarren]

Hey dudes,
I've heard something of stagnant substrate problems, I wasn't to sure about what I was being told as I'd not heard of it before. So I went ahead with my aquascape which has a deep layer of substrate at the back of the tank, approx 4~5 inches. I've since read about it in a book and started to get a bit twitchy about it! Its a medium planted setup, with some expensive Carribsea ecocomplete substrate.
Anyone suffered this before or have any experience with it?
Thanks,
D.

 

[StandbySetting]

No problem at all, all of this about hydrogen sulfide is rubbish, it is oxidized on contact with oxygenated water, nothing to worry about.

 

[Mowbz]

+1

I get it in mine. Under ornaments and wood and such, makes the sand go black and stinks. especially if you only find it once you've drained a tank

I found small pockets formed when i had really deep sand at one end of the tank, about 4-5 inches like you. I got little pockets even where there were no ornaments. I was advised to use some eggcrate to support small stones, then sand on top.

If you spread the black sand out, it'll go back to normal.

 

[Miles_hot]

long term solution apparently is to have heating wires in the substrate which causes eddy currents. We fitted it however I very much doubt is is needed in our case with only 2-3" of sand but it can't do any harm...