bubbles in the sand

[vettesarebest]

I have a 75 gallon reef and for some reason bubbles keep forming under the sand. I stir it up and within a couple days the bubbles are back. I hae been told this is nitrates but i am not sure. My sand bed is about 1 to 1/2'' deep. and it is figi pink live sand. Is this bad and what can i do. I have nassarius snails but well my pixie hawk seems to enjoy munching on them.:yuk:

 

[FutureInterest]

If they're just gas bubbles, then its likely just nitrogen gas, not nitrates. It means that some bacteria down below in the absence of oxygen started breaking down your nitrates to access the oxygen in the nitrate and the byproduct is nitrogen gas. That's a good thing . It could also be oxygen bubbles as a byproduct from various algaes on the sand. Finally, it might be bubble algae in itself, but I doubt that since you would probably know the difference.

 

[glxtrix]

or it could be the formation of cyno, you happen to have any of that wonderful red stuff in your tank?

 

[jmaneyapanda]

or its oxygen being produced by typical algae. i read somewhere that more often than not, this is what those little gas bubbles are.

 

[vettesarebest]

well i WAS...... luckily enough o have the cyno but i got rid of it with umm let me go see what it is called ok it is called ultra life red slime. That got ride of it in two days then i did a water change but i have had the bubbles for awhile een before the pretty red stuff.

 

[vettesarebest]

So what i am gatheirng is its nothing to worry bout?

 

[kevin]

I prefer to avoid stirring the sand. I would suggest taking rigid air tubing and just pushing it down in the sand about 1 inch apart repeatedly.

 

[glxtrix]

yes, poke the sand...stirring is bad ummmm k.

 

[vettesarebest]

ummmm k will do. But why is it bad??? i've never heard oof that i thought the corals liked it because then all the miniature creatures float in the water and the corals eat em.....

 

[kwl1763]

I'd like to see pics. I really think it's probably still a little cyno starting to form. If you can see it from the top it's not just nitrogen from the dentrification process. Stirring is bad because the way sands beds work is they transition froma high oxygen level on top to a low/no oxygen level on bottom. In that low oxygen environment some pretty nasty stuff gets produced that you don't want' released into the water column (hydrogen sulfide as an example) Stirring could easily release this stuff. It also causes the low oxygen environment to become oxygen rich which defeats the whole purpose to harbor dentrfying bacteria. If your sand is an inch or less it won't matter though since there won't be much dentrification/stratification in the sand bed.

Now stirring the very top 1/4 to 1/2 inch is a good thing for exactly the reason you mentioned!

 

[vettesarebest]

eww im good lol i will take pics when ii get home today. i doubt it will show up though. There are no bubbles on top of the sand only in it. I had cyno bacteria but i used that stuff and it took care of it in 2 days. And it hasnt come back or shown signes of it. Will this ever go away??