My sump smells and I don't know what to do

[Avi]

I have a smell coming from the sump on my 120 gallon reef. The water in the tank itself has no odor at all. I use Chemipure in the sump and change it every three weeks or so, and that makes no difference. Anyone know of anything I can use that'll take the smell away?

 

[lando]

What does it smell like? What filter media are you using in the sump?

 

[Avi]

The smell is like an oceanic organic odor...not too strong but it is something I'd like to get rid of. It's hard to describe better than that. The only medium I use is Chemipure...I use three of them that I change ever three weeks. The tank is 120 gallons with 140 or so pounds of live rock. I have a big Aqua-C skimmer on the tank that's always on. Like I said, the water in the tank doesn't smell at all, just the water that's in the sump.

 

[lando]

Sounds like it smells like a sump should. If you have bio-balls you might want to change them out with LR rubble. Maybe time to clean the sump??

 

[Avi]

No bio-balls...regular cleaning....what should a sump smell like?

 

[lando]

Well, mine kind of smells like the ocean. Every few months I remove the LR rubble and vac out the sedement on the bottom. I ussualy clean the filter pad and plumbing as well. A few months ago I was having a small nitrate problem. One of the things I did was to replace all of my bio-balls with LR rubble pieces from the LFS. Bio-balls are great at converting nitrite to nitrate but do not work great at removing nitrates. LR rubble takes this a step further and successfully grows bacteria that removes nitrate. I have noticed a significant decrease in nitrate since adding LR rubble.

 

[BillyZ]

do you have a skimmer in the sump? It may actually be the foam in the collection cup that you're smelling.

 

[RocketSeason]

hillarious avitar there Avi.