paul_r Posted July 8, 2009 Report Share Posted July 8, 2009 just done a water change in my 4 foot african at lunch time, took the lids off and was greeted with an aweful smell, the water literally smelt like umm.... excrement ive owned tropical tanks for years and have got used to the smell of cleaning tanks and doing water changes but today the smell was totally different. very hard to describe the smell other than smelling like ........ i changed fish foods approx 2 weeks ago, went from am thinking that since that is the only thing i have changed in my tank it could be the food. anyone else had something similar happen? cheers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whetu Posted July 8, 2009 Report Share Posted July 8, 2009 How strange. Have you done tests on the water for ammonia etc? Is the filter in good working order and apparently doing its job? Are the fish behaving normally? The food would be the obvious culprit if it's the only thing you have changed - and presumably you've checked for dead fish, rotting plants, etc. (An ammonia test would show up any problem like that, too.) But if the fish are apparently healthy and normal, then it must surely be something in the food... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul_r Posted July 8, 2009 Author Report Share Posted July 8, 2009 i dont actually own any ammonia etc tests, only ph :oops: filters are working fine, excellant flow Did find a dead fish on sunday, couldnt handle the agression and had been maybe 15% eaten, it was dead less than 5 hours before i took it out. did take out all rocks etc to look for any other dead fish but everybody was alive and fish are very healthy and eating etc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LYNDYLOO Posted July 8, 2009 Report Share Posted July 8, 2009 What Substrate do you have if any?? Or is it a BB Tank. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul_r Posted July 8, 2009 Author Report Share Posted July 8, 2009 mostly black silica sand crushed coral as well as limestone chips. these all get stirred up before i do gravel vacume so i can pick up the most gunk etc possible have a couple large rocks aswell Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LYNDYLOO Posted July 8, 2009 Report Share Posted July 8, 2009 Maybe you have a build up of Bacteria in your Substrate I had a similar thing happen in my Tank, when I vaccumed I used to get Big Bubbles come up the Gravel Vac from the Gravel. I took everything out of the Tank then Gravel Vacced 1/3 of the Tank for the next 3 Days, never had a problem since. Not sure if this would be your problem as you say you stir up the Silica before you Vaccum. Maybe worth while giving it ago anyway Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
si_sphinx Posted July 8, 2009 Report Share Posted July 8, 2009 Ive had this happen to me when i had white silica sand once. Every time i did a vac and stirred up the sand there was an awwwwful smell coming from under the sand The sand didn't have any water flow through it so bad stuff built up and went yuck :oops: i didn't like it so in the end i just got rid of my sand for a 1-2mm gravel which seems to be doing better so far. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul_r Posted July 8, 2009 Author Report Share Posted July 8, 2009 Sorry to hear about yur dead fish! was my alpha male lamplologus brichardi, he had beautiful fins and was one of the favourite fish in the tank, sad but such is life i guess, i have fry from him, not sure how many will survive with the other bigger fish but heres hoping. thanks for the offer of lumpheads, i would love some but i havnt been to Wellington in about 10 years but will definatly keep you in mind if im ever down that way there is a bit of oily residue on surface of tank (not sure what this was from) the 2 cannister filters provide alot of water movement but doesnt actually break the surface of water. there is no airstone or anything either. I can angle the filters up to splash the water although makes sleeping a bit difficult Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
livingart Posted July 8, 2009 Report Share Posted July 8, 2009 i cut my substrate back in the large african tank as i found with no water movement through the substrate, it was causing a build up of anaerobic bacteria i think anaerobic is the really coarse language smelling type Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ira Posted July 8, 2009 Report Share Posted July 8, 2009 was my alpha male lamplologus brichardi, he had beautiful fins and was one of the favourite fish in the tank, sad but such is life i guess, i have fry from him, not sure how many will survive with the other bigger fish but heres hoping. thanks for the offer of lumpheads, i would love some but i havnt been to Wellington in about 10 years but will definatly keep you in mind if im ever down that way there is a bit of oily residue on surface of tank (not sure what this was from) the 2 cannister filters provide alot of water movement but doesnt actually break the surface of water. there is no airstone or anything either. I can angle the filters up to splash the water although makes sleeping a bit difficult Oily surface is pretty common. But I had a 4"ish green terror die once that had only been dead overnight and the surface of the water was covered with scum and the wierdest thing was there were a couple dozen pea sized transparent orange oily blobs floating around just under the surface. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darkfur Posted July 8, 2009 Report Share Posted July 8, 2009 I bought myself some ammonia tests recently but the human nose is ultra sensitive to ammonia and if you get a smell you don't like, you gotta problem. Sounds like there's an anaerobic sludge in there somewhere phewwwwwweeeee Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul_r Posted July 8, 2009 Author Report Share Posted July 8, 2009 hmmm looks like ill be having some fun removing stinky substrate, so long as i dont swallow too much through syphon hose ill be ok :oops: hopfully i dont upset the fish too much, lukily i can get rid of most of the substrate easily using syphon hose Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
livingart Posted July 8, 2009 Report Share Posted July 8, 2009 best could be to drain most of water from tank in to large container remove fish then using a net remove top 1/2" of gravel to another container of tank water then remove rest of gravel(the smelly stuff) then redo tank the good bacteria live in the top of substrate using the net helps to clean the gravel and leave the muck behind Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul_r Posted July 8, 2009 Author Report Share Posted July 8, 2009 good thing i got a spare 2 footer lying around, i shall be having fun this weekend thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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