Substrates Leaving Air Pockets

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csmith

Guest
In an effort to rectify my NH4 woes (It's been a month and a half and I was still getting 20+ ppms) in my 20 gallon I've dumped the onxy sand/wormstrate (I like that word too, Gerryd :D) mixture I had and gone soley with onxy sand, and less of it. I pulled the old substrate, dumped in the new sand, filled with water to substrate level and planted. After 30-45 minutes my stauro and stems have no desire to stay down and the crypts are slowly creeping out too. Turns out the substrate is riddled with air pockets (which makes me feel better actually, I thought I was speshul when I couldn't plant stems a few months back in this stuff), so many so that tommorrow I'll have to pull everything out and alleviate that issue, then rescape. You know you have problems when rocks are moving around. :rolleyes:

Anywho, has anyone noticed this to be an issue with ADA AS? I just redid my 55 with 3 bags worth of the stuff and if it comes down to me having to pull all of the hardscape out to fix the issue I'd just as soon join the terrarium crowd.
 

shoggoth43

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Jan 15, 2009
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Not so sure on the AS. I can tell you flourite sand has a tendency to "fluff" for a while as well until it settles in and locks down. I'm not sure if throwing in some corys might help settle it in faster or if I should just wait it out.

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csmith

Guest
Shoggoth,

Seachem definately seems to have an issue with their sand retaining air. It actually concerns me a litte, as if it's not porous enough to release that much air is it porous enough to accept enough oxygen after that air is gone?
My 55 doesn't have water in it yet, but I'll be DSMing some HC soon. Cory's are on my checklist for that tank, but before they're introduced I'll hopefull have a dense carpet.
 

shoggoth43

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I'm not too worried about the O2 content as I expect the swords and other plants to transport that into the sand. I noticed pool filter sand locks down pretty tightly too so as long as I don't go too deep I think I'll be ok. I didn't have any issues with rotting or anything on 4" deep pool sand in pots so I don't really expect an issue in the 2" or so of flourite. Other than stuff sliding around for a bit that is. I have no idea how much there will actually be in there once it settles, but I can always add more....

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