Fenriswolf Posted January 14, 2008 Report Share Posted January 14, 2008 OK, can I just say "ahhh!" please? Thanks :-? Not overly cheerful, what with coming home to the 90L hexagon I just bought having leaked after being fine for three days - ruining a beautiful kauri table (temporary home), left the fish gasping and f-ed our nice mattress downstairs leaving us in the guest bed for... a while Anyway, I have the weirdest issue with this coldwater tank I'm setting up for my mum to save her neglected fish. It's a 90L tank I got from a woman at work. She had it for years, beautiful fat healthy fish despite an overstocked tank. I set it up with stones from the garden centre (well rinsed), a couple of plants, a bunch of new (rinsed) decorations, a couple of boiled and well dried sandstone and a new HOB filter with rinsed filter medium (including carbonated foam) and cycled for a week. It smelt weird, kind of sickly. The plants looked really healthy so after a week I put some fish in there anyway. They seemed fine, coloured up nicely. I hoped it would go away. Instead it got worse. I rinsed and boiled the stones, removed the sandstone, and did a big water change. It still smelt, and was getting worse. A week later I changed the stones for an entirely different lot of stones, which are perfectly a-OK in another tank. Changed all the damn water, changed filter media, soaked in StressZyme (I know, a couple of hours ain't gonna do much but it made me feel better) and started again. The plants were still healthy and there were no issues with the fish but the smell keeps coming back and so strong it made me feel ill. The Blackmoore died, no idea why just came home and was floating almost dead, put in quarantine with tonic salt but too late. So I took the HOB off and replaced it with a new internal filter, hoping it was the HOB. But nooo. :evil: Now one of the comets has white spot - I don't know if it's related but he's otherwise happy and none of the others have it yet (treating with tonic). It still smells revolting. Like something off. I'm intending to transplant the fishies (my leaky tank has slowed my plans a little though), throw out the plants (dammit, they're so healthy!), bleach the bloody tank and leave to dry in the sun, then try again at some point with water only and no fish. Anyone have any ideas? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vindy500 Posted January 14, 2008 Report Share Posted January 14, 2008 youre experiencing what happen when you ignore the nitrogen cycle Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adrienne Posted January 14, 2008 Report Share Posted January 14, 2008 Sandstone? Could it be this, as it is porous - maybe it has soaked something else up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fenriswolf Posted January 14, 2008 Author Report Share Posted January 14, 2008 youre experiencing what happen when you ignore the nitrogen cycle Ahhh, thank you. That's really specific and helpful. Language Removed... Mod Bill..... . I have three other fishtanks with happy fish hence my surprise at a persistent and unpleasant smell. Funnily enough, people ask questions for help, not to make idiots feel full of themselves! And adoge, thank you. I did wonder about the sandstone but if it was that it should have gone away after many water changes and decent filtration. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dimebag Posted January 14, 2008 Report Share Posted January 14, 2008 i think what vindy was getting at is that by changing filters/media you are probably prolonging the cycle, the fact that you ran the filter for a week before adding fish would have done nothing to help the cycle, would only have helped by clearing the water. about the smell- are you sure it is the tank that stinks? reason i ask is i was all ready to empty my big display tank the other day as there was a terrible dead fish smell coming from it, thought a fish had jumped out the back. just as i moved all the stuff from around the tank, i found the source of the stink... a maggoty bird kindly left by the cat :evil: i guess if you are sure it is the tank, next thing i would do is take the sandstone out? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dimebag Posted January 14, 2008 Report Share Posted January 14, 2008 sorry just re-read and realized you have already done that Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fenriswolf Posted January 14, 2008 Author Report Share Posted January 14, 2008 i think what vindy was getting at is that by changing filters/media you are probably prolonging the cycle, the fact that you ran the filter for a week before adding fish would have done nothing to help the cycle, would only have helped by clearing the water. about the smell- are you sure it is the tank that stinks? reason i ask is i was all ready to empty my big display tank the other day as there was a terrible dead fish smell coming from it, thought a fish had jumped out the back. just as i moved all the stuff from around the tank, i found the source of the stink... a maggoty bird kindly left by the cat :evil: i guess if you are sure it is the tank, next thing i would do is take the sandstone out? Bah. Trying to be civil, I'm just in a really bad mood :oops: Fair enough, cycling requires some amount of fish doesn't it? I know completely replacing the filter media is a bad thing but I was trying to eliminate possible contaminants as it became clear (or not) what was not causing the smell. It's been running with two plants, five small fish, one Fluval 1 and weekly water changes for about three weeks now. Still reeks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pegasus Posted January 14, 2008 Report Share Posted January 14, 2008 Fenris said: It's a 90L tank I got from a woman at work. She had it for years, beautiful fat healthy fish despite an overstocked tank. Did you by chance use the old gravel that was in the tank... (if there was any..)...? If so... then chances are that this has been disturbed and the anarobic bacteria from below the gravel is stinking. Only solution here is to boil the gravel... or leave in the hot sun for a week or so.... or replace it of course. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fenriswolf Posted January 15, 2008 Author Report Share Posted January 15, 2008 Fenris said: Did you by chance use the old gravel that was in the tank... (if there was any..)...? If so... then chances are that this has been disturbed and the anarobic bacteria from below the gravel is stinking. Only solution here is to boil the gravel... or leave in the hot sun for a week or so.... or replace it of course. Nope. That's why I'm confused. New gravel which is 100% fine in another tank, tank has been washed out like 3 times, plants are healthy, filter's been in there a few weeks... Bah, I'll test my water tomorrow Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adrienne Posted January 15, 2008 Report Share Posted January 15, 2008 Hi, seeing as you still haven't worked out the cause I'm going to go back to the sandstone. In an article on the net about sandstone it said that it could be used like a filter. Where did you get it from? I'm still wondering that if that is the case it may have filtered something disgusting! Apart from that or the fact that the gravel may have been old I'm out of ideas> Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fenriswolf Posted January 15, 2008 Author Report Share Posted January 15, 2008 I was kind of hoping this was something not entirely uncommon. Given it's quite a distinctive smell if you've smelt it. Could it be excess nitrates/-ites? If so I would have expected more unhappy fishes though :-? I wouldn't have been surprised at all if it were the sandstone but I haven't had them in there for ages. And 100% new substrate. I'll let you know if something comes up tomorrow. We've got a full kit at work so I'll just test for everything and see if anything weird comes up :roll: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ira Posted January 15, 2008 Report Share Posted January 15, 2008 Sounds to me like you've got the normal fish tank smell. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adrienne Posted January 17, 2008 Report Share Posted January 17, 2008 Has it been sorted yet? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anna_&_Chris Posted January 26, 2008 Report Share Posted January 26, 2008 i have the same with one of my tanks,i had plants in there and still do,i think thats just the way the tank smells,like shit literaly (excuse my french) ,very bad smell,the closer you smell it the worse it is.but i had to get used to it. its just a tank smell. although my cichlid tank doesnt have plants and it doesnt smell,im picking it mite be plants Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wilson Posted January 26, 2008 Report Share Posted January 26, 2008 i had the same problem almost a year ago i changed the gravl and uped the flow i was told it was a dead zone that i was disturbing (sp) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fenriswolf Posted February 1, 2008 Author Report Share Posted February 1, 2008 I am such a dumbass. Still want to slap the gimp who replied first but... he's probably right. I know so much random crap about fishkeeping but somehow I missed the memo about proper cycling :oops: The pH was elevated which is kind of weird, but the ammonia was terrible. The nitrate wasn't all that high so I'm guessing through all my pissing about trying to "fix" it I just restarted the nitrogen cycle like 3 times. Now, luckily for me, apart from my poor little blackmoore everyone seems happy. The plants are happy, the fish are happy, the white spot's gone. It doesn't smell any more! The smell was pretty damn odd but at least now I actually know how to cycle a tank properly Thanks anyway :lol: Oh, and can I ask another dumb question? If you have quite a few plants and an external filter, how do you prevent shite building up under the stones? It's not like you can use a gravel vac for water changes, you'll just dig all the plants up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tHEcONCH Posted February 1, 2008 Report Share Posted February 1, 2008 I have heavily planted tanks - I use a combination of good water flows and hoovering around the plants to keep it under control. Some gunk is OK, but get out as much as you can without ripping your plants up. A suckermouth catfish or two will also help. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fenriswolf Posted February 1, 2008 Author Report Share Posted February 1, 2008 I have heavily planted tanks - I use a combination of good water flows and hoovering around the plants to keep it under control. Some gunk is OK, but get out as much as you can without ripping your plants up. A suckermouth catfish or two will also help. OK, so you just do it as much as you can. Doesn't help that for some reason I thought it would be a good idea to have teeny stones at the bottom with quite large stones on top. Makes it very hard to hoover :roll: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tHEcONCH Posted February 1, 2008 Report Share Posted February 1, 2008 Yep, although small stones also mean smaller spaces for crud to collect, so its not all bad. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.