Healthy fish and good diet I would guess

I think it depends on what you're keeping. The skimmate from my 180 was so bad it stunk up the whole house, but I had some large fish, in a mature system with who knows what else living in there. In my 18" cube with little fish and less other life it has almost no smell at all.

ha ha ha ha NO SMELL put it back and let it age awhile longer. No, really it all depends on what the skimmer is taking out. If it is more platonic bio-mass then it stinks more than if it were just fish poo. My skim mate really stink most of the time but there are times it does not seem to have much of a stink at all. I chalk it up to a few things possibly my head is a bit stuffed up, head cold weather is changing. The change in weather can do this sort of thing as the air pressure increases it put more pressure on the surface of the water and there for keeping more of the solids lower in the tank there for they do not go to the sump. Fish poo alone does not stink to bad because it is already partly broken down. there is a stink but no were near the stink of taking live bio more out and letting it start decay.

If you don't believe me then take a small tank set it up and get it running for even a couple months and then drain the water out and wait and see what the stink will be like.


Bill

Well theres people that think their chit dont stink. Never heard of one that thinks their fishes chit dont stink. J/K :lol: Your lucky, the skimmate in my skimmer would gag a maggot.

the skimmate on my nano at worst smelled faintly of potting soil. The skimmate on my 90 smelled like a mixture of intestinal gas and sushi that had gone off.

Mine isnt bad either but not to much of a bioload on a 33 gal. I use the cold water to clean out most of the cup, hot water has abit of a microwave effect :puke:

I'm thinking that's the case with mine it's mostly inverts and coral with one prawn goby

agreed, i have inverts, two clowns, boxfish and a chromis.
I do get the sludge in the skimmer cup as well though, other than fish poop and food decay, what else are we actually skimming out of the water? Decay from LR and sand as well? anything else im missing?

Have you tried using a good cold and sinus medicine? ......you'll be back to smelling bad things in no time :razz: