|
Smelly tank
So I have noticed over the last while my house is starting to smell like a fish tank. We just got home from dinner and it is really noticeable. I just cleaned out the skimmer cup last night so it's not that. I've got a lot of detritus on my sand that is now turning red, so hello cyano....tank transfer took place at the beginning of March. I added a sand starfish last night as well but haven't seen him since he went in. I did a water change last weekend and tried to get out as much crap out of the sump as I could, but my vacuum kept clogging up (it attaches to the sink and sucks). Have water ready for salt for a large water change this weekend. What am I doing wrong?
|
A dead snail in the tank could smell like that too, not just from a skimmer cup like I had a problem with before.
|
Does the water smell in the display? or is it coming from the sump area?
|
Any algae or liverock exposed anywhere? Do you run carbon? Carbon will def help with odor but lately I have been seeing more and more people having issues with running carbon in a reef setting. I would read through the "carbon threads" before making a decision on that.
|
Seems like it's coming from the display tank, sump isn't that bad. I moved one of the power heads down a few inches to try to move more flow over the sand and I'm seeing more solids floating around, had to look closely to make sure it wasn't bubbles.
Mentioning a dead snail, I added 20 sand snails but haven't seen a single one come out....could they be causing this if they are dead?? |
Quote:
No rock or algae exposed or has been since set up, this smell is new over the last couple of days, no changes to the tank. |
Test your water for ammonia, nitrites and nitrates right away.
If things are rotting, you'll find out pretty quick. |
Is your DT open or covered?
|
Quote:
This just happened here too. Checked a few snails that hadn't moved for a while and when I brought the oozing one out ...ACH :shocked: It reeked so bad I nearly blew chunks. Tanks smell dissipated (I don't use GAC) shortly after I flushed it. |
Quote:
|
Testing now, will post results. Dt is open, no cover.
|
Quote:
|
Quote:
Now, this may not always be the case during a new tank cycling issue, but as far as I can tell ( and coming from freshwater vacumming every week ) it's better to not 'sand' clean. Unless you have some huge issue that requires you to do it, I'd say stop doing it. |
Test results
Ammonia 0-.25 it's in between the 2 colors Nitrite 0 Nitrate 0.5 Phosphates 0 No no, not vacuuming sand bed, just the gunk out of the sump. Trying to get the powerhead to move it around a bit but I'm not touching the sand. I added 25 new snails and transferred about 5 out of my smaller tank, plus a couple of hermits, the 20 sand snails and last night a sand starfish. If I need a bigger cuc, I can add. I didn't use live sand but added a cup of sand out of my 55 to seed it, did this as soon as the tank was salty. |
Your readings show you should monitor you tank closely for awhile due to the ammo. This may be your smell. Whole bunch of speculation here, but you could have a bunch of die off that is causing it.
What size tank is it that you added all those guys to? Sorry if I missed it. |
It's a 180 dt with an 80 gl sump. Should I dig around for the snails?
|
Quote:
Give us all that info from scratch ... so I don't have to read the whole post :mrgreen: Just wanna help, too tired to read everything |
I appreciate the help, thank you!
Tank size posted above but it's 180 plus 80 gl sump. Have a reef octopus 5000 skimmer, 2 mp 40s. Approximate 140 lbs of live rock. Bioload 2 clowns Bangaii cardinal Royal gramma Solar wrasse Radiant wrasse Hippo tang 20 sand snails 30 reg snails Approximate 5 hermits Mix of lps corals, toad stool, mushrooms, zoos. Transferred tank on march 5 from my 55 gl after cycle. All fish and corals look good. Sand has been looking dirty for just over a week which is why I added the sand snails and starfish. It's been getting worse over the past 2 days. |
I'm typing a lot of this, not just for your benefit, but for all.
I am no expert by any means, but have learned SO much from Canreef that I would like to tell you this .... Whether or not anyone else agrees, I like your bio-load so far in so far as you haven't pushed it. You have 140lbs of rock. Is it Live for sure? Just asking. Sounds like you are off to a good start. You have lots of rock to support your charges. You may have added too many snails at one time due to a lack of food for them. You can go to the LFS and buy a 'cleanup crew package', but that is almost always based on a tank being fully populated. Anything less and they may starve. I could very well be wrong here, besides the fact that your smell came on so soon, but I wonder if you put too many dudes in at one time? I could go out to the LFS tomorrow and buy a 'package' for my tank, but most would die in 1 or 2 days 'cause I don't have anything for them to feed on. I see you have ammo, which is never good. Did it exist previously or is it the result of too many dudes? This you may never know. Have you been monitoring ammo and nitrites lately? At this point, I would suggest you keep a record of your results 2-3 times daily. Mostly, test for ammo and nitrites. I'm anal about ammo, so you could test just once a day, but I recommend you test it multiple times over the next days until you see something you like. Test nitrates once a day if you like. You will need to do lots of small water changes if your ammo does not go away over the next couple of days, and in the meantime, you should do some small changes now. Keep your ammo as low as you can or you will lose more dudes and the cycle will exacerbate itself. And don't forget that although some additives will help lower readings, you're best to not do so unless you are comfortable. Ie; using Prime or AmQuel can/will lower ammo, but you could lose your dudes due to low O2. You MUST heavily aerate if this is your choice. Hope this is not too wordy and helps you as I do tend to go on ... Oh, and by the way ........ :mrgreen: |
Quote:
Thanks again! |
Forgot to mention I have shrimp too, 2 cleaners, 1 fire shrimp and 1 peppermint, also a porcelain crab, all are ok and I know these guys are sensitive...they were all transferred from the 55 as well.
|
Quote:
Keep an eye on your params and do what you have to do. So what's your ammo at now? And your nitrites/nitrates? Like I said earlier, test them frequently until you are comfortable/find a base-line. Because you have an ammo issue, 0.25, I recommend you test frequently until you see a base-line. Before that, you should be doing water changes to keep the ammo at bay. Ammo can rise in hours, not days, so you need to monitor it constantly. And I did mention the bit about things that can reduce ammo. Prime or AmQuel. Don't over-do them. They will drop your o2 to near death levels. So, are you doing another ammo test as you read this? You should be. And you should have at least one powerhead breaking the surface of your DT too. Report back tomorrow with your reading. Sorry to come across as short, I'm tired and going to bed |
Results this morning
Ammonia 0.25 Nitrates 5.0 Nitrites 0 Didn't see your post last night, will fish out as many snails as I can this morning. Have some prime, will add in, return lines are pointed at surface of tank, have good water movement. The bf is jome today, he will monitor the tank as the ammo has def gone up slightly. No worries on comments, I misunderstood about removing carcasses...was late. Water change tonight, have about 60 gls of water made up. |
Didn't have time to post before I left, but I found only 5 snails (out of 20) - all alive. Made quite a mess of the tank with the sand moving around, so didn't keep at it for long. My radiant wrasse was still sleeping, so stayed away from his area. None of the livestock looked stressed either last night or this morning (the ones that were out). I also didn't see any dead shells from the other snails anywhere....will post mid day results...
|
Hi there,
I had some ammonia problems awhile ago and I also used some ammonia pads to help lower my levels. I also used prime as well but the ammonia pads really seemed to help. Worth a try. Good luck. I know how much it sucks having ammonia. Leanne |
When I wrote amquel last night, I meant to write amguard.
http://www.seachem.com/Products/prod...s/AmGuard.html Prime will be a good start, but it's not recommended to use it continually to remove ammonia. Plus, amguard is more cost effective. |
My test for ammonia is always .25
Every day of the week, every week of the month, and every single month the tank has been up (minus the initial cycle where is was a bit higher). It's an API test and I'm pretty sure it's defective. Do you run filter socks? Because mine give off the same smell, but not so much so that it stinks up the house. Could yours be the culprit? The dirty filter socks may be near a vent and thus the smell is getting blown all around the house? Also, between us ladies, when a woman is pregnant she tends to have a more sensitive sense of smell. Just sayin'. You might want to do a test for that too. ;) |
Quote:
|
Just left red coral, had Kevin test my water, 3x, each time read 0. We tested 3 times today, results am .25, noon .5, 6 pm, .25-.5. Using API test, new kit bought when I cycled tank. Used Salifert at rc and api test. As for smell, not as strong tonight. We've turned the sand looking for snails all day, no dead ones found.
No filter socks on tank, its def in the dt not sump. I don't know what's smelly, if its a snail, no clue where it is.... And Reefgirl, if I was preggers someone would get sued! Had that dealt with a few years ago, I'm so done with babies, my girls are 19 and 14, plus stepkids, started young.:mrgreen: |
Hmm, that's interesting
If you do decide to buy the Seachem kit, the reference is 1.0 It helped me learn to read the colors more accurately |
I'm stumped. Bought a salifert test, will retest in a bit.
|
| All times are GMT. The time now is 03:50 PM. |
Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.7.3
Copyright ©2000 - 2025, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.