I've been meaning to post this for a while but only getting round to it now. I moved house and set my tank up again with new sand in April. Since then the sand has gradually been getting more and more purple/black under the surface with gas pockets as well. It's not a dsb its little over an inch in depth at its highest points. It's the same brand of sand I'd used before and never had this issue. Just really confused as to why it's happening, towards the back of the tank is less bad than towards the front which is really awful. I cant even clean the glass close to the surface of the sand bed because the bubbles get released. Just wondering if anyone knows why it's happening/ if it could be anything other than hydrogen sulphide/ what I can do to change out the sand or if I should leave it and avoid disturbing it as much as I can? Ive attached a photo just for reference, not the cleanest just as I'm avoiding cleaning the glass near the sands surface and currently going through a cyano stage. Any help would be appreciated, thanks!
Hydrogen sulphide buildup?
- Thread starter Kiala
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Big G
captain dunsel
I had something similar going on in my tank a couple of months ago. The Fiji Pink was way too fine, got dirty too fast, and the bubbles. I vacuumed it out a small area at a time and replaced it with Special Grade. Now I stir the bottom of the tank everyday (about 1" thick) and no problems. But man that was a lot of work siphoning the old sand out + water changes. Whew!
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Look into purple sulphur bacteria. It's crazy weird stuff. Lives in anoxic zones, but needs light. Photosynthesizes but doesn't make oxygen. likes sulfide.
Randy Holmes-Farley
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Looks like an organism to me. Maybe even cyano.
Sorry only seeing these replies now. Yeah I thought about cyano I've just never seen it under the sand and the darkness/ bubbles worried me a bit. It has changed colours and positions again... the darker areas have moved towards the back of the tank and near the front it is very light green, pink/ red and light purple areas mostly. I'm not really worried about it now, it looks better than it did and at least I can clean my glass without worrying about hydrogen sulphide! Thanks everyone 
