Tank smells.

[Jefft]

Haven't started water changes yet, I am procrastinating as it is a pretty big job at least for me. Lots of stuff to take out of the tanks in order to get to the substrate. Have to put towels down on the floor to set everything from the tanks on so it doesn't soak carpet. I have to use a 45 ft hose off the kitchen sink tap for draining and it takes a while to both drain vacuum and refill. Typically Sunday night after dinner and before our "shows" is when I handle my tank water changes. I will admit I have been running my filters without the carbon but I have enough inserts to handle all of them. So those will be going in tonight as well. I hope no one else is interested in them Tommy better for me you know how it is, but if they are they better be ready for a war. LOL

 

[fishman13]

I had this problem before dude. I would try sturing up the gavel and then doing a 50% water change and feed less. Also check for dead fishies

 

[Tony]

+1 on feeding less. Adult fish do not need to be fed twice a day. I feed my adult Malawi fish 5x weekly.

 

[mchambers]

Agreed

+1 on feeding less. Adult fish do not need to be fed twice a day. I feed my adult Malawi fish 5x weekly.

I feed my (mostly South American fish) 5x a week. Heavy on the weekends, and take Monday and Friday off, or some other day if I am out of town overnight.

Adult fish, in my experience, do better with less food, not more. It's counterintuitive, of course, so is hard to convince yourself to feed less.

 

[chris_todd]

I also only feed 5x a week, so that might be part of it, but the smell you describe could be hydrogen sulfide, which is often produced by anaerobic bacteria. In fish tanks, anaerobic conditions can exist in deep substrate, so I wonder if your thorough substrate cleaning might be exacerbating the problem? Just a guess, though. Excessive decaying organics from over feeding seems the more likely cause.


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[Avatar]

Not buying it

I have 40 tanks in a three-room flat and I (and my acutely sensitive girlfriend) don't smell a thing. Am sure I have no idea, but even an LFS at its nadir doesn't smell like you describe. Unless you have some really serious maintenance issues, and even then I don't see how your fish could survive if there was insufficient cycling in your tanks to produce an outgassing that smells like "dirty diapers", which is to say, ****e. I think it's something else in your apartment that you smell or something in the apartment/basement below.

Another possibility though remote is that you have a tank that's established am unusual strain of dominant bacteria. For example while E.coli usually establishes itself early in human infants as the dominant intestinal bacteria and is responsible for giving the contents of used diapers their characteristic appearance/aroma, occasionally/rarely some other bacteria gains the upper hand an an individual infant may have red feces rather the more typical green/brown. An analogous circumstance in your tank/tanks is unlikely I think but I've never ever heard of "stinky tank syndrome" until now. And that makes me very skeptical.

I think a bit of testing is in order. How about the next time you come home, you take a breath, hold your nose, open the door, go right to the tank, get real close to the surface and see if that's what smells. Unless the tanks nitrate levels are high enough to kill I'll bet you a box of charcoal against nothing that the water in the tank is not the source of the problem.

 

[fishman13]

+1 on feeding less. Adult fish do not need to be fed twice a day. I feed my adult Malawi fish 5x weekly.

Wait tony the info I gave was what you would of said. Wow i am learning quick.lol

 

[Azraphael]

Was just wondering? Have you actually tested the water for ammonia or nitrates?
I've got a 5 month old son so I'm kinda used to the nappy smell, until I added a new canister filter to help the existing one and out of nowhere got an ammonia spike and spent two days blaming my wife for losing as dirty nappy somewhere in the house. Tested the water and needed a nappy myself, 80% water change, carbon in the filters and everything was fine

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[Jefft]

Did you know on the back of the boxes of ceramic rings we use for our filters it says to rinse them at least once a month and change them out every three months? I didn't. LOL. I have at last found the culprit of my tank smells. After sticking my nose to the water countless times, sniffing my tanks wondering where in the world the wet diaper smell was coming from. I had thought an overflowed dishwasher was the source of woes and ill smells in my apartment. I have at long last discovered the reasons for the stink. It was the bag of ceramic rings sitting atop my filter sponge. Green with goo, thought to be valuable parts of the bio filter of my tank it has proven via the gagging of my roomie when pulling the rings for cleaning to be the source of the smell.

 

[mdlnewman]

good find