Exploding substrate - replant..?

[NannaLou]

Hello, I’m trying my hand at a low tech/Walstad style tank and have soil under a sand cap.

The plants are growing like crazy, but in the past two weeks I have had ‘explosions’ from under the sand…what a huge mess it makes . Fortunately there are no fish in the tank as yet.

So a question (maybe more than one…)

* Has anyone lifted all their plants, changed substrate and then replanted? Did the plants survive this process..?
* Is this likely to be an ongoing happening, or once established will it settle?
* Is sand with fertiliser tabs as efficient for the plants..?

Any advice will be welcome, thank you

 

[Dephea]

I can't comment on how likely it is to happen again because I simply don't know but I did have to re-plant my aquarium due to my clown loaches digging through soil and changing it all into a mud puddle. It's not a Walstad tank but I imagine the technicalities of plants repotting/cleaning will remain the same.

My plants did not suffer, I took them all out, cleaned from the remaining soil / mud and as I did I also pruned half dead leaves, mushy roots etc, just gave them a good clean - bear in mind I had to do it as the mud was basically EVERYWHERE in the tank. If you don't have to I would not go through any excessive cleaning. I used tap water btw, just made sure that the temperature was similar to that in the fish tank

I then re-planted all of them in sand with fertiliser tablets and so far nothing died, some of my tiger lilies are actually growing faster now than they did before.

What I do now is whenever I clean the tank I do poke the sand with a skewer to release any air bubbles, really fast and easy

What can help is for you to tell us what plants you have - I only have easy to maintain plants, some I imagine can be more picky

 

[PheonixKingZ]

I am trying to figure out what you mean why “the substrate is exploding”...

* Has anyone lifted all their plants, changed substrate and then replanted? Did the plants survive this process..?

Yes, I did, and they did survive. The crypts and vals sort of had a melt down, but they came back much stronger.

* Is sand with fertiliser tabs as efficient for the plants..?

Yes, it’s very effective. Much cheaper and more nutrient efficient in the long run.

 

[NannaLou]

I am trying to figure out what you mean why “the substrate is exploding”...

There are pockets of air/gas building up in the substrate and when touched they literally explode sending the bottom layer of soil all over the tank covering the sand layer cap.

 

[NannaLou]

What I do now is whenever I clean the tank I do poke the sand with a skewer to release any air bubbles, really fast and easy

What can help is for you to tell us what plants you have - I only have easy to maintain plants, some I imagine can be more picky

It was poking the substrate as I could see a bulge that caused the explosion! I‘m certain with would have happened as any point in the very near future without my assistance!
The plants are all ‘easy care’ with the exception of something Monte Carl, which is listed as medium but I’ll post a proper list (and photo) after work.

 

[PheonixKingZ]

There are pockets of air/gas building up in the substrate and when touched they literally explode send the bottom layer of soil all over the tank covering the sand layer cap.

This is very weird... do you have any pictures of the air bubbles?

 

[Uberhoust]

The "air" being released is likely not nitrogen and oxygen, but more likely methane and if you are unlucky some hydrogen sulfide as well. Suggests a lot of organic break down is occurring in the substrate. It is the same thing as well you go to the swampy portion of lake and disturb the bottom and a lot of bubbles rise up from the surface. If I had a lot of gas production in my substrate I would be considering re-working the substrate. I if were to do my tanks again I would go with sand as @PheonixKingZ suggests.

 

[NannaLou]

This is what I think it was… it makes sense from other reading I’ve done too. It didn’t smell very pleasant And this is what it has done to my tank:

I think the weekend will be a total strip out of the tank . On a superficial level, I don’t like the look of the mud; more importantly, it has the potential to kill the fish once I get them.

 

[Slaphppy7]

View attachment 138069This is what I think it was… it makes sense from other reading I’ve done too. It didn’t smell very pleasant And this is what it has done to my tank:
View attachment 138070
I think the weekend will be a total strip out of the tank . On a superficial level, I don’t like the look of the mud; more importantly, it has the potential to kill the fish once I get them.

If it's hydrogen sulfide = not good

 

[PheonixKingZ]

Oh, definitely not good.

I would honestly tear down the tank and redo it. If you don’t, you will continue to have these air pockets pop, causing excess ammonia and dangerous gases to be released into your tank.