Fishy smell in my apartment

[camaro_boy]

Hi guys, i have 2 10" oscars in my tank and its a bigger tank in which im actually upgrading next month cause they have got so big. So here goes. I had a freind come over the other day and mention that my apartment seems kinda fishy. So i cleaned out the fluval FX5 that cleans my water on a turn over rate of around 11 times a hour. So i figured it might be the filter media. Seems fine. I cleaned out the large scale spunges and they didn;t seem that filled up.

From what i gather the filter pads are just not fine enough to pull enough garbage out of the water. So im testing out some filter pad i got from pets mart in hopes that it will catch more garbage and reduce the smell some more. Any ideas? experiences?

Thanks
Douglas

 

[navykorman]

add more carbon to it. that seems to do the trick for me

 

[bob965]

Vacuum your gravel, clean all around and underneath the lids and rim of the tank, do a water change.

 

[Deaths Sting]

i find a lot of the time that smell is caused by the lid. tiny tiny particles of uneaten food will be stuck to the under side, they just slowly decompose their and start to smell.

sometimes its just a build up of yucky stuff caused by condensation.

i would take the lids of the tank and clean them thoroughly.

also, burning coconut oil really helps!

 

[squint]

I can smell the ammonia a few minutes after feeding my fish. It goes away after a few more minutes.

If the smell is constant, it's because I'm overdue for a water change.

Less food and/or more water changes--the solution to most problems here.

 

[camaro_boy]

Hi guys,

thanks for all the advice.
Because im new to this i have done partial watch changes twice a week now for over 3 months to get it all worked up. I put new filter media in the fx5 this morning and already the water seems to be a little bit clearer now. It was always clear but i can see the water looks thick if you know what I mean. I just cleaned the lids 3 days ago and again about a week ago. I try to clean it frequently to get this smell gone. I never noticed it at first but now that I do its starting to annoy me. Ill keep going with the water changes and see what happens. I cleaned out the filter this morning when I added the new filter media to see if that will stop some more of this problem.

Thanks for the advice

 

[408smokin]

more carbon will help!

 

[G-Code]

Careful with overcleaning your filter. This could kill all your beneficial bacteria and cause your water parameters to go crazy. I read on here that Seachem Stabilizer is good for cycling your tank. The BB should also help with that fishy smell. Good luck

 

[carsona246]

I only have a ten gallon, but one thing I've noticed from living in a tiny concrete dorm room with a fish tank is that plants actually help tremendously in the smell department. I used to really smell the fish tank by the end of the week, and it really got on my nerves, because the smell did not go away in this room. However once I started getting a bunch of plants in my tank I've noticed the smell is no longer noticible. Although it could also be due to my roomate not washing his soccer clothes this semester.

 

[Hasi]

i find a lot of the time that smell is caused by the lid. tiny tiny particles of uneaten food will be stuck to the under side, they just slowly decompose their and start to smell.

sometimes its just a build up of yucky stuff caused by condensation.

i would take the lids of the tank and clean them thoroughly.

also, burning coconut oil really helps!

I can smell the ammonia a few minutes after feeding my fish. It goes away after a few more minutes.

If the smell is constant, it's because I'm overdue for a water change.

Less food and/or more water changes--the solution to most problems here.

The smell is most like one of these two points above.