Water Smells BAD

[kaz]

recently I have some wrigglers and some leafs going bad. but the water really smells bad like alot of fish plus something else i can describe. anyone know? I did a 50% pwc today. btw how many times you feed the wrigers and what? is it good to have them wonder around or seperate alone?

 

[joannde]

Have you tested your parameters (ammonia, nitrites and nitrates) using a liquid reagent kit ? It would be helpful if you posted those results.
I'm - not sure what you mean by "wrigglers and leafs" - can you clarify ?

You may be smelling Blue-Green Algae (Cyanobacteria) - horrible stuff !! tough to get rid of. Is there any slimy looking greenish / dark green / blueish stuff growing in the tank (especially on the plants ?).

 

[kaz]

ammonia 0 nitrites 0 nitrates 20

I have small babies and some of my plants leafs are dieing and i do have small dark green algae in glass and some spots of maybe what you describe in my plants leaf

 

[JDogg]

use this page to try to id your algae

 

[kaz]

Spot algae:
Brush algae:

maybe these two

 

[JDogg]

Spot algae:
Brush algae:

maybe these two

if this is the case it is more a a plant/light/fert/co2 imbalance issue... read up in the planted tank forum and see if any of that helps

not sure about the smell though :?

 

[Lonewolfblue]

Feel the dark green algae. Is it slimy? If it is, it' BGA. And that can be your smell problem.

 

[kaz]

how do i get rid of it?

 

[Lonewolfblue]

That's a hard one. First thing is getting the dosing inline. Second, PWC's and adding carbon to the filter. I'm trying to battle it myself, and I think I'm succeeding. A big thing about BGA, disolved organics plays a big roll. And doing the extra PWC's are definitely helping. I also put in activated carbon to assist as well. Will see how things go.

 

[kaz]

any suggestions on the new live babies what to do with them and how to feed how many tmes etc. they are guppies

 

[TomK2]

Detrius accumulated in the substrate can smell pretty bad. For my non-planted tanks, water changes never solved the problem, but a gravel vac sure would. But this probably is not an option for a plated tank?

 

[Lonewolfblue]

If a planted tank with Eco, you just vac off the surface of the substrate. If using regular aquarium gravel, then gravel vac as normally done, except around the roots of the plants.

 

[kaz]

 

[Shelby_Tempo_GT]

Have you tested your parameters (ammonia, nitrites and nitrates) using a liquid reagent kit ? It would be helpful if you posted those results.
I'm - not sure what you mean by "wrigglers and leafs" - can you clarify ?

You may be smelling Blue-Green Algae (Cyanobacteria) - horrible stuff !! tough to get rid of. Is there any slimy looking greenish / dark green / blueish stuff growing in the tank (especially on the plants ?).

now that you mention it, back when I had stinky tank water, it was right before an algae outbreak.

 

[kaz]

I turn off the lights and I have only the room light on, should I do this for one week?

 

[joannde]

Unless you're trying to do a blackout you should use your lights as normal with them on approx 10 hrs per day.
If you are trying to do a blackout you need to completely cover the tank with trashbags and/or blankets so that no light at all gets in; don't peek; don't even feed the fish. The blackout will work to kill the algae but I'm still not sure we've figured out what type of algae it is and what the imbalance is that is causing it - if you don't figure out the root cause it will only come back since the conditions will be the same.

 

[kaz]

sounds good I appreciate everything and hopefully at for this upcoming week I have the test kits