False bottom setups?

Hey you guys!

Am I the only person here, who sees a potential danger with the most popular false bottom setups, beeing gravel and coco/soil?

The water-level in the gravel being anaerobic, quickly releases highly toxic hydrogen sulfide, which may or may not be unhealthy for your scorpion, but without doubt is a great health risk for yourself - along with the cost of the very bad smell it may emit.

Well aware of this, I made myself a bottom setup for my first couple of emperors, following the guide of Thaedion, as I figured it wouldn't be a problem, seeing so many others having it too. A few weeks later I changed my mind, and rapidly moved them to another setup, as I could easily smell the gas emitting.

Am I doing something wrong here, or could this warning be helpful for others? I'll definately get a pump for my future false bottom setups, to ensure fresh oxygen :-)

Best regards
Stress

Stressmynte wrote:

Hey you guys!

Am I the only person here, who sees a potential danger with the most popular false bottom setups, beeing gravel and coco/soil?

The water-level in the gravel being anaerobic, quickly releases highly toxic hydrogen sulfide, which may or may not be unhealthy for your scorpion, but without doubt is a great health risk for yourself - along with the cost of the very bad smell it may emit.

Well aware of this, I made myself a bottom setup for my first couple of emperors, following the guide of Thaedion, as I figured it wouldn't be a problem, seeing so many others having it too. A few weeks later I changed my mind, and rapidly moved them to another setup, as I could easily smell the gas emitting.

Am I doing something wrong here, or could this warning be helpful for others? I'll definately get a pump for my future false bottom setups, to ensure fresh oxygen :-)

Best regards
Stress

You could try putting a layer of activated charcoal over the pebbles and a peice of screen over that but make sure the substrate on top is fairly deep so the scorp has plenty of room to dig and there will be a less chance of it breaking through the screen.

I have found a false bottom is not needed just make sure your substrate is slightly moist (for tropical/humid loving)species.

It sounds like you've got something decaying in there to give the anaerobes something to consume -- what type of substrate are you using? If all that's down there is water and a bit of coco fiber, it should be fine, as coconut choir takes a LONG time to decompose. (I changed out some year-old stuff and it was just starting to have a texture like it was breaking down.)

Just coco fiber, it's the water that rots, no?

Uh, water doesn't rot. It can get contaminated with rotting material, though.

Are you sure you smelled something from the tank? If so, are you sure it wasn't just decomposing prey items on the surface?

Where did you get the rocks and did you rinse them before using them?

What is your water source?

Also, getting oxygen down there wouldn't do much but give the aerobic microbes a better shot. I looked up hydrogen sulfide and it sounds like something that could come from flatulence or a vase in dire need of a water change. (Not that the water is rotting, but microbes are feeding on the plant tissue and living in the water while giving off H2S as a waste product.)

IHeartMantids wrote:

Uh, water doesn't rot. It can get contaminated with rotting material, though.

Are you sure you smelled something from the tank? If so, are you sure it wasn't just decomposing prey items on the surface?

Where did you get the rocks and did you rinse them before using them?

What is your water source?

Also, getting oxygen down there wouldn't do much but give the aerobic microbes a better shot. I looked up hydrogen sulfide and it sounds like something that could come from flatulence or a vase in dire need of a water change. (Not that the water is rotting, but microbes are feeding on the plant tissue and living in the water while giving off H2S as a waste product.)

I agree with you on this one water wouldnt just smell without anything contaminating it and thus been broken down and releasing gases over time, however i dont use the false bottom design but then again i have never had a problem with my humidty ranges so i have never felt it needed....... well as of yet anyway.

The rocks were washed before using, but nothing more than that. It's granite rock or something alike. That could be the reason.. hmm.

I'm absolute positive I smelled something from the tank. When I removed the substrate and got down to water level, the smell was very harsh, like a swamp full of dead things. There were no prey items :-)

I use a mesh between the gravel layer and the soil to prevent such a thing. The water doesn't rot it just get cotnaminated....oh Mike said that already..i'm done.

So it's the substrate that gets bad when it gets down the water?

It depends on the substrate. Coco fiber doesn't do that so easily, so there was probably something in it.

But yeah, it sounds like some easy source of carbon got down in there for the microbes.