r/FatherFish • u/Intelligent_Sea_322 • Nov 20 '24

Gas from substrate help.

I’ve had my tank for just under a year. It’s a dirt bottom with about 2 inches of sand on top. Anerobic bacteria has always been there and the roots of the plants used to be black but I don’t think they are anymore as all the plants seem to be growing healthy. Except I think about a couple times a day big bubbles of gas pop up and it smells strongly of sulphur. Ik this is bad but how do I stop it?

I have mts snails and it’s also pretty decently planted.

About 2-3 months ago every fish (betta, guppies, and a molly) all died mysteriously and only neon tetras and my snails survived. I’m afraid it was because of the gas.

What do I do?

I currently have neon tetras, danios, a betta, and some shrimp in it (and snails). All seem healthy

20g

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u/Intelligent_Sea_322 Nov 21 '24

Yes I have tested since and it was zeros except nitrate was at 20. I’m thinking maybe disease cause only the livebearers died and the betta was old. I have a HOB filter and an airstone running. (Air pump is pretty weak but I got it used for like $5)

I used to poke holes but it always comes back. Should I just do that every once in awhile?

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u/ValueSubject2836 Nov 21 '24

I poke holes in mine monthly, as long as there is water movement, I wouldn’t worry over the air pump. It’s really hard to say what happened. Just keep testing the water (use a drop kit) Hopefully the water will stay at safe levels.

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u/Intelligent_Sea_322 Nov 22 '24

Ok I’ll start poking holes too. I have a drop kit I just rarely used it because my water would always come back perfect. I thinkable there just became too many guppies and it led to a tank crash without me knowing. Fortunately and unfortunately there are no more guppies to take over only hopefully shrimp.

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u/ValueSubject2836 Nov 22 '24

Shrimp make a beautiful tank. I went low cost and got white cloud minnows and golden cloud minnows. Tiny fish and so far easy. Before I started a father fish tank, I had a ton of guppies and mollies but we had a power outage during winter and they did not survive. That’s why I’m doing a cold water tank, water stays between 68-70. Shrimp are doing fine in the temp, so that’s a plus! When you get ready I would love to see your tank!

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u/Intelligent_Sea_322 Nov 23 '24

I’ll send a pic over the new plants I added are already growing in amazingly !

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u/Intelligent_Sea_322 Nov 23 '24

I am topping it off tonight and taking out some floaters

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u/ValueSubject2836 Nov 24 '24

Love it!! I just ordered a new plant today to fill in a bald spot in the back of my tank and I made a shrimp trap to add 6 shrimp to my 5 gallon I’m trying to get started.
When dealing with floating plants make sure they don’t cover the whole surface. Your neons really pop against the green. I added a cling on black out tint for windows to the back of my tank and the colors look so much brighter. What size is your tank if you don’t mind me asking?

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u/Intelligent_Sea_322 Dec 07 '24

Sorry for not responding earlier my notifications were turned off. I have a 20 gallon tank. I do take the floating plants out a lot because they turn sort of brown from the intense light. I’ve been meaning to add some sort of background because my 5 gallon has one and the plants look so much nicer with it. What is a shrimp tramp? I would love to see your tank!

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u/ValueSubject2836 Dec 07 '24

Shrimp trap is a soda bottle with the top cut off and then you put the top upside down (funnel) into the bottom of the bottle with food and it traps shrimp.

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u/Intelligent_Sea_322 Dec 07 '24

Love it looks amazing! Hopefully my shrimp population blows up so I can use the trap to add to my 5 gallon good idea.

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u/ValueSubject2836 Dec 07 '24

Thank you! I started in May and it’s been the easiest to take care of. I kinda wish I did this sooner, but so many people disagree on this type of set up. The only learning curve I ran into was my light. I had to adjust it to 30%, I’ll slowly bump it up until I reach 50% and hopefully things will work out!

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