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Sulfide gas around driftwood.



Hello all,
   I was doing a water change tonight, and a major trimming.  Since I had a
pennywort grouping pulled out of the tank, I could see a little better:)
Well when I pulled it out I noticed a few bubbles come out but thought
nothing of it at first.  Then I was dipping in there with the vacuum and
saw that part of an A. bateri had a small section of the rhizome rotted and
lost a few leaves.  This one was located in the gravel right up against the
driftwood.  So I really started poking in that area and there were a lot of
bubbles and then I noticed the egg smell, lots of bubbles, and the rhizome
was bad.  The Anubias had no roots and the leaves had separated from it.  A
Anubias branch that had headed away from the drift wood was fine and rooted
well, but as I dug deep in that area with the vacuum the gravel was all
black and there were more bubbles.  The smell brought me back to the days
as a kid slurping through the ponds and marshes hunting anything that
moved:)  Stinky eggs sulfur smell, rotten wet wood. 
   So I figure the driftwood is rotting, and thus the smell and gas
production.  I was wondering what negative ramification this can present to
my system.  It is only 4 months old, but to get that drift wood out of
there would basically require a teardown of the whole 90 gal.  It is a Very
large piece, wedged into the corner, and was added to the tank before the
substrate was.  The tank looks great, the fish too so the situation is not
bad now.  The substrate is a green sand layer covered by a laterite gravel
mix covered by clean gravel.  I fertilize with PMDD.  There is 3 watts/gal.  
   What would be a good approach here?  Keep an eye on it, and keep
disturbing/oxygenating the area around the drift wood?  From what I have
read in the past, unless there is a load of gas production it should not be
to bad right?  I ran a stick around the perimeter of the wood and released
a fair amount of bubbles, and will do the same in a couple of weeks and
see.  Unfortunately most of the areas that are anaerobic are located in the
shade of this mammoth driftwood.  So planting something like Lobelia would
probably not work well.  The archives discussed the condition, causes, and
possible side effects in severe situations.  But I did not find any
possible solution in limited situations.  God I would hate to have to try
and remove this thing.  And I kick myself since I noticed that a portion of
the bottom of the wood was a little soft, but I never pictured this
stink:):)  All I need is an ell and train him to borrow a lot in that area
ONLY:)  Would Malaysian Trumpet Snail help control this, or would they just
find that area "sour" and steer clear?  I have attempted to establish a MTS
colony once, but lost.  Loaches 1, me 0.  

TIA,
Jeff Dietsch