Why Does My Fish Tank Smell?!?
- Thread starter Agliata45
- Start date
the tank is 100% brand new. there are no live plants in the water. the tank cycled after only a few days since i used gravel and some water from the old tank, the tests proved it was good too. also the sump is my only source of filtration but it does move 700gph. my substrate is gravel, and i gravel vaccumed today and no poop or anything came up! this doesnt make sense to me!
If you didn't move filtration over ( you didn't specify, only said gravel and water), then your test is wrong and you have ammonia, making the water smell. There is little BB in your gravel and water, mostly resides on surfaces but not much, and filtration the most. Move over your filtration, retest with a new liquid test kit.
Lots of bacteria can live in gravel, especially from a tank with an undergravel filter (and also those without one!). The whole reason an undergravel filter is even possible is because your gravel can hold a lot of beneficial bacteria. So I wouldn't jump to the conclusion the tank isn't cycled because he didn't move the filter, especially if he started with a relatively light bioload. A lot of old school fishkeepers never used any sort of bio-specific filter media.
I'd say the issue is either a bacterial bloom, a dead fish, or rotting food in the tank. Feeding some pellets can make your water smell up pretty quickly. OP, have you looming under tank decor and in your filters for anything like that? Have you tried carbon?
Hello; You used old gravel from another tank, correct. Did you clean the gravel or just use it the way it came from the other tank. In my experience old gravel accumulates a lot of detritus and is nearly always has a very bad smell. If you did not clean the gravel, A guess about this bad smell is that it is from the old gravel. I have seen posts about using old gravel and other stuff from an established tank to introduce beneficial bacteria. I do not think this necessarily means using all the old stuff without cleaning it. I think you may only need a handful or so in a mesh bag or some of the old filter medium.
When I break down a tank that has been set up for a long time, the gravel can be very rank. This is true with or without an undergravel filter.
When I break down a tank that has been set up for a long time, the gravel can be very rank. This is true with or without an undergravel filter.
