ZebraPleco.com • The complete Hypancistrus zebra resource

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?

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!

Tristan

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.

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.

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

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?

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.

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

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

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.....

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.

Hi

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

Tristan

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.

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.

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!