hi all...my buddy out in nyc has a 125 gallon piranha (is that spelled right?) tank that has 8 red bellies and 1 large oscar, about a foot long. anyway, the oscar is a fairly new addition, but the red bellies have been in there a couple years now with no problems. recently my friend did a water change, and suddenly, the tank stinks...i mean really stinks, like the whole floor that it is on smells terrible. it smells like dead fish, however all of his fish are alive and well, and the few dead feeders that were in the tank have been removed and yet the stink will not go away. water parameters are right where they should be. any ideas???? he called me to ask about the problem, and since i'm in ct i can't just hop over there and see what's wrong, so i was hoping some of the intelligent fish keepers on this site might be able to help me out. any suggestions or advice would be greatly appreciated.
tank stinks
- Thread starter JeffLeMay
- Start date
All water parameters check out and it still smells? Weird. Maybe there is a dead feeder fish rotting behind the tank or something stuck in a filter. Can you discribe the smell more? Is it like rotting eggs or like a dirty lake or really just straight up dead fish smell?
All I can suggest is to run some good carbon and see if that helps.
All I can suggest is to run some good carbon and see if that helps.
Also temp plays a role.. Evaporation is notorious for smelly tanksIs there some old carbon in the filters? If so get that crap out of there!
Check the waste level too. How long has it been since the gravel has had a good vac?I would try doing a very large water change very carefully making sure not to disturb the gravel to much and also siphon under all the decorations then i would put some fresh carbon in the filter and see if that helps at all.
I would do a very thorough gravel vac/waterchange 50-60%, Check all my filters for chunks of rotting feeders, clean the media (in tank water or dechlorinated water) check any decorations that a feeder may have gotten into and died, and see if that helps. A lot of times if you have decorations in your tank that do not allow for good water circulation then stagnant water will accumulate there and cause odor unless you dump it regularly ( all though if this is the case I would throw that deco in the trash). hope this helps.
thanks for all the advice guys...i'll definitely tell him to do another water change and check the filter for dead fish. He runs two big filters, both of which had the media changed recently ( i did that myself), so carbon should be good. i'll give him a call and give him your suggestions and see what happens, thanks again
Howdy,
This makes me wonder:
If you changed them both at once and/or you also changed the biomedia, this might be the reason for the smell. In this case, biofiltration has been massively disrupted and the tank cannot handle the large bioload of carnivores. That means the tank is cycling again - and since it already contains massive fish, I strongly recommend to add bottled bacteria asap.
Besides all of that, I agree that some serious gravel cleaning and water changes should help.
Good luck,
HarleyK
That is always a very vague statement ... Please report exact levels of nitrate, nitrite, phosphate, ammonia, pH, possibly conductivity.JeffLeMay said:
Please also post regular maintenance, such as water change intervals and volumes, and possibly new additions to the tank (driftwood, plants).
I hope he doesn't regularly have dead feeders in his tank for prolonged periods of time...
This makes me wonder:
If you changed them both at once and/or you also changed the biomedia, this might be the reason for the smell. In this case, biofiltration has been massively disrupted and the tank cannot handle the large bioload of carnivores. That means the tank is cycling again - and since it already contains massive fish, I strongly recommend to add bottled bacteria asap.
Depends on how long ago the carbon was introduced. It last for about two weeks. Once the tank is established again, I recommend to remove the carbon. It has been known to cause deficiency symptoms in Oscars.
Besides all of that, I agree that some serious gravel cleaning and water changes should help.
Good luck,
HarleyK
As Harley said, if both filters had their media changed at one time there is a good chance that is the problem, only one should be changed at a time and you are better off just rinsing the bio media rather than putting in new stuff, that is where the bacteria that make the filter work actually live. Adding a little live filter sludge from a healthy filter to those filters should speed recovery. Dead feeders should be removed after an hour or so. Charcoal, if you use it, should be replaced every couple weeks, if that is a bother replace it with more biomedia except when trying to remove meds or smells. Increasing aeration with a bubble wand for a while should also speed recovery.