Stinky water!

If it isn't to late, and you're desperately looking for some advice, hopefully someone can help you out.

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Ed_R
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Stinky water!

Post by Ed_R »

The water in my tank just plain STINKS- seriously, it smells very sour. IT tests out fine for nitrite, nitrate, ammonia, ph, and temp, though.
I do 25-30% water changes every couple days. ANy thoughts?
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Post by Tristan »

Have you hunted for any dead fish and is your filter working properly. Do you have any substrate in your tank, it might be worth removing it / cheking for trapped food/ methane pockets. Also check around your tank to see if anything has jumped out, got stuck behind/below and gone off!

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Ed_R
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Post by Ed_R »

No dead fish, and I siphon off the uneaten food every couple days with teh water changes. I am running two sponge filters with maxi-jet power jheards, there's a LOT of flow in tha ttank.
I do hae some sand in the bottom but it's just enough to cover the bottom, nowhere near enough to generate methane pockets!

There are 5 fish in that tank: two subadult zebras and three mollie fry.
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Post by Mindy »

Carbon might remove the smell, but it still leaves the problem of what's creating it... :? I don't know. The only time my water ever had an off smell is when I had dead fish. Sorry I can't be more help.
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Post by McEve »

What kind of smell is it? Like a swamp? Does it sting your nose when you smell it? Try describing the smell.
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Post by Ed_R »

Sorry, McEve, but describing a smell is a lot like describing a color, to me;)
It smells very sour, though, with a touch of sweet. Make sense?
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Post by McEve »

sour - like in sour milk? Try comparing it to something :)

The tank where I had a female die in a cave smelled like a swamp for days after I removed her, even with 20% water changes every day. Maybe removing uneaten food should be done every day instead of every second. I know my food goes mouldy within 24 hours, so I always remove it in the morning. Anything rotting or going bad in the tank would give the water a bad smell. A change in the bioload could do the same. I noticed some, but not all, of my tanks have had a period of rather strong swamp like smell, especially around week 5-6 after it's set up.
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Post by Ed_R »

CAn't be dead fish, all are accounted for.
So now you want me to do daily water changes?
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Post by McEve »

If you feed them so much that there are left over food in the morning... yes :lol:

Doesn't have to be several buckets you know, just siphon the food out of there and replace the water. Wouldn't hurt, and the smell might go away.....
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Post by Ed_R »

I don't know how much to feed them because I never see them eat!
That's the issue. Maybe I'll back off the food supply for a couple days and see what happens.
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Post by Tristan »

Hi

Has your water stopped smelling now? Did you ever find out what the cause was?

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Post by Ed_R »

IT has, but I fed only Hikari wafer for a week. GUess it was the daphnia that was causing teh smell. We'll see, they went back on Daphnia this morning.
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Post by Adam »

Hi Ed_R,

When I use to feed frozen blood worms, mosquito larvae and dapnia I did notice that my tank water was a bit more pungent than normal. I didn't pay too much attention to it and didn't even consider the possible link. Now that I feed frozen shrimp and dried foods to both community fish and the zebras I haven't experienced the "stinky" water syndrome. Perhaps the fact that these foods originate from stagnant waters has something to do with it.
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Post by Shell231 »

I had this problem! i found if i didn't have a condensation tray under the light i found the light made it smell and now i have one it doesn't smell at all, it used to smell like pickled onions! hope this helps or it was just a coinsidence for me!
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