# Foul-Smelling Sand



## Thalamus

As I was moving and removing some of the shells in my FW aquarium, I ended up scraping up some of the sand substrate. Beneath the clean-looking top layer, the lower layer of sand was corpse-gray and smelled absolutely terrible. It smelled like methane or rotten eggs. My question: is this normal, and will it harm my shrimp and my snails?


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## automatic-hydromatic

is your substrate just sand?

I've never had a just sand substrate, but I believe you're suppose to stir it a little every other week or so to keep this from happening


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## Thalamus

It's sand with some miscellaneous gravel and broken shells here and there. I haven't stirred the sand since I put it in, but I will now. Thanks!


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## holly12

I think that sand if not stirred, can form pockets of toxic gases that can harm tank inhabitants. It's good to have a fish or snail in the tank that stirs things up to keep the substrate aerated. (Not sure if stirring it while it's got pockets of the gas in it will cause the gas to release, hurting the fish..... I think you're supposed to stop it from happening in the first place.) If you stir it up and notice any of the animals acting strange, I'd move them to a hospital tank until the gases air out of the tank.

It could possibly be rotting debris as well. The gravel in my 10g is only 2", so doesn't form toxic gas pockets, but I noticed that while gravel vacuuming last week, the dirty water smelled a bit like sulpher/eggs. I'm thinking it was left over food that may have been starting to go bad.


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## Thalamus

Yeah...I suspected it might be some kind of toxic anaerobic gas buildup. Trouble is, my trumpet snails, the only burrowers in my tank, don't dig down deep enough to reach it. So I guess I'll have to make sure to keep it well-stirred. Thanks!


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## NeonShark666

Smelly sand is sand that has not had access to O2. H2S and CH4 are usually the reasons for the smell. Your sand layer is probably too deep and/or you have sand and not gravel. An undergravel filter can help reduce this problem. Very few animals burrow into the sand in FW tanks. Burrowing helps to get O2 into the lower layers of the sand or gravel.


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## Gizmo

Live plants that get their root systems down into the sand will do the trick too.


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## holly12

Cory cats and some Loaches will help to stir up sand.


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## Thalamus

gtm2007: That's good news to me, and it makes sense. Guess I'll hit the petstore for some more plants in the near future.


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## Thalamus

holly12: So far, I haven't been too keen on actually adding fish to my tank. I'm more of an invertebrate guy, and anyway, I don't think I have the skills to take care of all their needs. I _have_, however, developed an interest in bottom-feeder fish (wish I could remember the species). Do you think they'd have the same effect?


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## automatic-hydromatic

NeonShark666 said:


> Your sand layer is probably too deep and/or you have sand and not gravel.


that was actually going to be my next question; how deep is this substrate?


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## Pigeonfish

Thalamus said:


> I _have_, however, developed an interest in bottom-feeder fish (wish I could remember the species).












Does it look like ^?


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## holly12

Google Image Result for http://withfriendship.com/images/h/39919/Plecostomus-image.jpg Pleco - will sort of stir up the bottom looking for food.

Google Image Result for http://www.petpig.com/fish/fish/Loach-Kuhli.jpg Kuhli Loach - love to burrow into sand looking for food.

http://www.google.ca/imgres?imgurl=http://www.aquahobby.com/gallery/img/Corydoras_aeneus_3.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.aquahobby.com/gallery/e_Bronze_Cory_Corydoras_aeneus.php&usg=__7zVI3LAgS6ydiZ_YxBHvfHuuItk=&h=320&w=520&sz=19&hl=en&start=7&zoom=1&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=S1O7UGE4gwETOM:&tbnh=81&tbnw=131&prev=/search%3Fq%3DCory%2BCats%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26sa%3DN%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-USfficial%26biw%3D1366%26bih%3D665%26tbm%3Dischei=YNQYTrvANc3ngQeGtpkt Cory Cats - also a big sand lover and will stir it up looking for food.


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## Thalamus

Aha! It was a Pleco that I saw, although the other two look interesting, too. Guess I'll be getting _two_ things at the petstore tomorrow 

Do they eat live plants?


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## holly12

They don't eat them, but they can up root them sometimes. (I had an albino bushy nosed pleco, and she never up-rooted any plants. She was gentile.) Research what type of pleco you get. Some can get 12" long. (The Bushy nosed ones tend to top out at 2.5-4".) They are nice and small! But good algae eaters.


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## susankat

Yes but don't get a common pleco unless you have a tank big enough for him. Mine is in a 90 gal right now and is sitting at 16 inches and will probably add a couple more inches.

In a 10 gal you really don't want to put any type of pleco in as the tank isn't big enough. If you get cories I would look into the dwarf types, pandas, pygmy and hasbrosus. They would be the only ones that would be small enough to where you can have a small group of.


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## Thalamus

automatic-hydromatic said:


> that was actually going to be my next question; how deep is this substrate?


At its deepest, I'd say it's no more than two inches, maximum. I've started stirring the sand with a wooden spoon to keep it aerated, and so the maximum depth varies.


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## Thalamus

susankat said:


> Yes but don't get a common pleco unless you have a tank big enough for him. Mine is in a 90 gal right now and is sitting at 16 inches and will probably add a couple more inches.
> 
> In a 10 gal you really don't want to put any type of pleco in as the tank isn't big enough. If you get cories I would look into the dwarf types, pandas, pygmy and hasbrosus. They would be the only ones that would be small enough to where you can have a small group of.


I went to the petstore before I read this, but a guy there gave me the same warning. Good thing, too, because there's not nearly enough room for a 16-inch pleco. I went with a few loach instead.


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## automatic-hydromatic

what type of Loach? because some of those get rather large too, like Clown Loaches... at least too large for a 10 gallon anyway.


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## Thalamus

automatic-hydromatic said:


> what type of Loach? because some of those get rather large too, like Clown Loaches... at least too large for a 10 gallon anyway.


It's definitely not a clown loach. It's one of the eel-like loaches, possibly a Kuhli or a Dojo. I forgot to check the species when I was at the store, but they were all pretty small, so I don't think (fingers crossed) they get too big.


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