stinky tank water

[lyric112209]

Is it normal for tank water to have a not so pleasent odor? I just notice it if I've been out and come home ( live in an apartment) and open the door I notice a smell and I know its the fish tank...

 

[paytertot]

Not normally. What is your stock and maintenance schedule? What size tank? What does it smell like?

 

[lyric112209]

Not normally. What is your stock and maintenance schedule? What size tank? What does it smell like?

Its a 10 gallon tank, with 4 neon tetras, 1 guppy and 1 platy, its a pretty new tank..has only been cycled for a few weeks( took about 2 months fish in cycle) I was changing 50% of tank water almost everyday during the cycling process...now I just do about once a week a 20-30%...its not a horrible smell but you can definitely tell there's an odor when you walk in the door

 

[paytertot]

Hmm.. does the water look dirty at all? Is it coming from the water itself or a filter? Because I'm thinking it could be a filter that needs cleaned.

 

[lyric112209]

Hmm.. does the water look dirty at all? Is it coming from the water itself or a filter? Because I'm thinking it could be a filter that needs cleaned.

No water looks fine...and I wash the filter in the tank water when I do water changes...there's the regular filter than the biofilter..but you're not suppose to clean the biofilter because of the BB right?

 

[Alx85chi]

In my experience with smelly water I do a water change clean out the substrate and filter and add some aquarium salt and if you like some "clear water" products and BOOM smell is gone an fish have a clean house errrr tank

 

[paytertot]

If the water is clean there's no reason to use a water clearing chemical. I would just pop some carbon in there for a bit. And you can rinse any part of the filter in tank water, the BB is in all of it anyways. Rinsing it in tank water is no different than running it in your tank except you're rinsing the gunk out of it instead of into it lol.

 

[lyric112209]

Right, the filters I use have activated carbon in it already...so should I add more?

 

[Evilgrin]

My experience with carbon is that it should be replaced fairly often if it's the same carbon you've had in there since the beginning then yes it's time to swap it out for new.

if it the black carbon pad that's built into the cartridge then then your kinda stuck with it. I never buy the black carbon pads personally I always find that the carbon pad wears out way to fast, I always got the plain white pads with the pocket and filled that with carbon and changed that out every 2 weeks.

 

[lyric112209]

Ok yeah...its the blue cartridge with the carbon behind in...I didn't know you could purchase the refill cartridge and carbon separately...I will definitely look into that next time im at the store...another question...what is the carbons purpose ?

 

[paytertot]

Ok yeah...its the blue cartridge with the carbon behind in...I didn't know you could purchase the refill cartridge and carbon separately...I will definitely look into that next time im at the store...another question...what is the carbons purpose ?

If your filter has cartridges, you can't buy them without carbon. That's just how they're made. But you can buy a little bag of carbon that is designed for the aquaclear and shove it in there. Remember when replacing filter media to never throw it away without first seeding the new piece because you will be throwing away BB.
You can add new carbon to get rid of the smell, but you really need to find out what's causing the smell and fix it.

 

[BBradbury]

Tank Odor

Is it normal for tank water to have a not so pleasent odor? I just notice it if I've been out and come home ( live in an apartment) and open the door I notice a smell and I know its the fish tank...

Hello lyric...

Tank odors are from waste material dissolved into the water. Large, frequent water changes will solve the problem. If you remove and replace half the water in the tank every week, the water properties will be stable and the odor will be gone.

B

 

[lyric112209]

Ok...yeah I was doing pretty big water changes...but last week I added 3 new fish and did a 50% water change a few days after and one of my fish died like 10 minutes later so I've been kinda worried that if I do another big water change it might happen again

 

[BBradbury]

Tank Odors

Ok...yeah I was doing pretty big water changes...but last week I added 3 new fish and did a 50% water change a few days after and one of my fish died like 10 minutes later so I've been kinda worried that if I do another big water change it might happen again

Hello again lyric...

As long as the new water is treated and is roughly the same temp as that in the tank, a water change wouldn't cause a fish death.

Large, weekly water changes are the most important thing you can do to keep the water pure and the water chemistry stable for the fish and plants.

B

 

[lyric112209]

Ok, thanks

 

[Evilgrin]

Carbon is used to absorb chemical compounds in the water (to a degree at least) some naturally occurring as well as most medications you would use to fight ick and other fishy illnesses.