Re: My water is starting to smell, is this normal?

[Gill Passman]

> wrote in message
ups.com...
> Hi guys,
>
> I have removed since long carbon filter, and last night when I was
> adding a couple more ghost shrimps (love those guys) I noticed that the
> water smells quite bad.
>
> Is this normal?
>
> Tested the water and it the results are normal.
> I did a quick check to see if all fish are accounted for.
>
> What is the reason for the water to smell? Is it time to clean the
> sponge?
>

What does it smell of? If it is eggy it could be Hydrogen Sulphide which
would be a problem.....if it is pondy it is probably be quite normal. All of
my tanks smell different but none are neutral....

[[email protected]]

Is water change the best way for prevention?
I do 25% every week.

I can't tell right now what kind of smell but it's not pleasant. :)

[[email protected]]

Oh yeah, should I put the carbon back for a couple days??

[Gill Passman]

> wrote in message
ups.com...
> Is water change the best way for prevention?
> I do 25% every week.
>
> I can't tell right now what kind of smell but it's not pleasant. :)
>
I suppose it is a matter of taste/smell - lol but how unpleasant....eggs,
sulphur or anything that I describe below....

Just sniffed all my tanks - some are quite musky, others smell of pond or to
be more precise river water....none of them are unpleasant....although
sometimes others might disagree when I smell of "eau de tank" following
maintenance...

BTW do you gravel vac thoroughly?

[Daniel Morrow]

> wrote in message
oups.com...
> Oh yeah, should I put the carbon back for a couple days??
>

It wouldn't hurt but really you shouldn't need carbon unless you want to
suck all of the medication (if you used any) out of the water after it's
usefulness is over. I wouldn't recommend more of a water change at the
moment but clean your sponge filters often (I clean mine every 4 days)
because if they get clogged they won't work nearly as well. I know I have
been preaching the easiness and effectiveness of biowheels but I had a
minicycle (the sponge prefilter wouldn't let nearly the normal amount of
water to reach the biowheels - i.e. the sponge prefilter starved the
biowheels) recently because I used to never clean the sponge prefilter until
now and now I clean it every 4 days. Cleaning it (and the separate hagen 125
gph powerhead that also has a sponge prefilter) this frequently has totally
solved the problem. I emphasize that this maintenance is more important than
it first looks so please do it (clean the sponge). If your water smells a
lot like feces then you need to clean the gravel much more thoroughly with a
gravel vac (but at the same time keep your regular water changing schedule),
if it smells "sweet and sour" then you should be fine unless the smell takes
over a relatively standard size of room, in which case you would have to
decide what to do about it. I've only had the "feces" smell once when I
just restarted gravel vacing my silver dollar tank as there was a lot of
buildup at that time of detritus, I've had the "sweet and sour" only when
smelling the water up close and that's rare as I don't pay attention to it
because it is such a small/insignificant smell and it doesn't transverse
anywhere than within a few inches of the water's surface. Good luck, and
later!

P.s. - to everyone: I find that the 10 dollar marineland aquareminder is a
very good buy. It let's you know when it is time for any of the 6 timed
events to be maintained. It counts down the days until a water change,
gravel vac, 2 custom, filter maintenance, and/or filter cartridge changing
is necessary. The thing is programmable and helps you keep track of all of
your maintenance easily, and even comes with labels so you can customize it
to your liking - very worthy of $10.

[CanadianCray]

Carbon will help to remove the smell. When you do water changes do you clean
your substrate/gravel? Usually when my tank gets smelly there is something
nasty under the decorations/rocks.

> wrote in message
oups.com...
> Oh yeah, should I put the carbon back for a couple days??
>

[[email protected]]

Thanks for the sugestion.

I will certainly clean the sponge, it's been a month or so since the
last time. you are probably right, it is not working efficiently.

As for vaccuming thats a bit more trick because my tank is full of
plants and they are at a fragile state at the moment, still waiting for
the light hood.

But I will see what I can do this weekend.

[Mean_Chlorine]

Thusly " > Spake Unto All:

>Hi guys,
>
>I have removed since long carbon filter, and last night when I was
>adding a couple more ghost shrimps (love those guys) I noticed that the
>water smells quite bad.
>
>Is this normal?

Define 'bad'.

If it smells musty, earthy, not distinctly unpleasant, like rotting
leaves or moss, then that's normal.
If it is an aggressive, sharp, clearly unpleasant smell, then it's
likely a combination of mercaptans and ammonia - ie, you have overfed,
there's a rotting fish, or the filter bacteria are dead, and the
aquarium water is toxic, and you need to do massive water changes
ASAP. Generally only freshly started aquaria get this smell.

Finally, if it smells a bit like, well, poo, then it may be there's
swamp gas production in the aquarium, meaning you should probably
vacuum your gravel.

[Dick]

On 2 Jun 2005 10:20:41 -0700, "
> wrote:

>Hi guys,
>
>I have removed since long carbon filter, and last night when I was
>adding a couple more ghost shrimps (love those guys) I noticed that the
>water smells quite bad.
>
>Is this normal?
>
>Tested the water and it the results are normal.
>I did a quick check to see if all fish are accounted for.
>
>What is the reason for the water to smell? Is it time to clean the
>sponge?

Please define "water smells quite bad."

In over 2 years and 5 tanks I have never had a tank "smell quite bad."
I can't smell any particular odor unless I stick my nose close to the
water, then it is sort of musty smelling, not anything I would call
"bad." Would you describe the smell as rotting, sulphur or any other
descriptive word?

I quit using charcoal over 6 months ago. I clean the filter media
only when the water flow slows too much.

I tried ghost shrimp a couple of years ago, but they didn't stay in
the tank. I suggest you describe your tank setup in more detail, for
instance, tank size, how long it has been set up and a list the fish
population (species and number).

By the way, my nose is not very sensitive, are you sensitive to odors?
It is so hard to judge whether your tank odor is significant except to
assume the tank has not always smelled bad.

dick

[[email protected]]

I think I found the source of the smelling. :)

As some of you may know I have a floating 4X4 piece of wood that is
used by the crabs to stay out of the water.

Well, I guess it's been a long time since the last time I cleaned it.
:)
I took it off, washed really good and put it back in the tank, the
smell went back to what it was, which is what a planted tank would
smell like.
Doesnt smell like freshwater but it's not unpleasant.

Damn crabs, can't they do it in the water like every fish does?? :)