My sand burped!!

Ok! I would from time to time see bubbles rising from the sand in the tank, never thought anything about it until now, I took a long poker stick and stirred a spot about the size of a tennis ball and I was very surprised to see the sudden flow of bubbles making its way to the top and I don’t mean a few, it was like the live sand and a serious burp going on, now I think I have a clue what it might be, but not at that extreme, what is going on in that sand bed to have such a great release of gas? and I do hope it’s a good sign.

 

I believe it's just your Nitrate cycle going on. The "cycle" is never really over. Just Self sufficient.

I wouldn't stir the sand too much though, it can release harmful stuff into the water.

 

So its nitrogen gas? that is the final product from the cycle right? I never thought so much would be stored in the sand bed,

 

It's from anaerobes breaking down nitrates into free nitrogen gas

 

How old is your sand bed?

 

That sand bed is about 2 months old, there are still the now and then bubble coming out of that same spot.

 

Mine did the same thing for a couple months. Eventually it all settled and my sand bed doesn't bubble much if ever anymore.

 

I hope that sand bed has something to do with my water quality, just tested the water for my main 2 concerns and results were 0 Nitrates and 0 Phosphates, it can keep right on burping

 

Indeed.

Try not to purposely stir it up like that Jeff.
The bacteria are working hard for you to remove harmful nitrates into nitrogen gas like bwalker said. You introduce oxygen into the sandbed when you stir it which can kill of "some" of the anaerobes and slow the process down.

Chalk one up for DSB's!

 

If I recall correctly you need to be very careful with this. The gas that is coming from the sand will grab oxygen as it moves up and depletes the o2 in the tank. If it is a constent stream then you may want to intorduce an airstone somewhere till it subsides