Lots of plants = stinky tank?

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bkiggy

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Right now I have 12 plants with high lighting. I have pictus cat, usd cat, elephant nose and Cory's. Fluval 406 on 40 gallon. My tank smells like a ZOO .... what's up with that? No cover on tank
 
what is your water change schedule? how many gallons do you change? also what are your water parameters? ph, ammonia, nitrate? how long has the tank been set up and is it cycled? live plants will not smell unless they are rotting in the tank. how healthy do the plants look? how many fish are you keeping? the answers to these questions will help to discover what's wrong.
 
Water change about every 7 days, sooner if ammonia goes up. 40 gallon tank, 10 gallon WC at a time. Vac gravel too. Use prime, and stability sometimes Neutral Regulator. Have Fluval 406 canister
Ammonia .25+/- NitrItes 0 +/- NitrAtes 30+/-
Just got done cycling with fish in ..... won't do that again -
Plants healthy but lotz of algae. Brown and green
Have all kinds of plants. Have found what works an what doesn't.
Have pictus cat, USD cat, Cory's and elephant nose - healthy (made it through cycling process) !

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Hi the ammonia is still a little high,did you use a substrate designed for plants? If so some of these can 'release' some ammonia when new. Also you say smells like a zoo? Now is that a nasty type smell or just a smell? Does it smell like rotten eggs? How long you kept fish? Just asking in case its just a new type of smell for you? I cannot 'smell' my fish tanks but my sister says they stink :eek: especially when i do a water change!
 
Kind of smells like grassy dirt. I've had the fish since the beginning. 10 weeks. Did not use plant substrate, just gravel. Use API root tabs. Sometimes Flourish.
Ammonia was 4 about 5 weeks ago. NitrIte did spike to over 2 then went down
NitrAte is 5
Since switching to Fluval going through cycle again but adding ALOT of Seachem Stability for beneficial bacteria
 
Hi so not what you would regard as a 'nasty' smell {such as rotten eggs} so i wouldn't be too concerned,it could be just settling down, also do you use a gravel syphon when doing a water change? If so is it quite dirty? If so is it more brown or black? If its black then it means the substrate is getting anaerobic and needs more circulation cleaning?
 
You shouldn't use carbon in a planted tank BUT in this instance I would put some in your filter and see if the smell goes away. Carbon absorbs smell so if it's in the tank it should absorb it. You shouldn't leave carbon in all the time but IMO it's worth a shot in this instance. I leave Purgen in my FX5 on the 220g all the time and no one has ever said my tanks smell.
 
Oh forgot to add doing a 50% WC before adding the carbon would be a good idea. And as stated above checking your substrate is a good idea and cleaning it where there are no plants.
 
I do clean the gravel every time. Definitely brown and definitely a lot of "gunk" I only feed every 3 days. Frozen brine shrimp, sinking shrimp pellets, and frozen freshwater community
 
It could be the prime making it smell, when I first started my 29 I didn't know about cycling either so I ended up using prime every 24 hours and probably didn't do enough water changes then eventually my tank had an odor too. Do plenty of water changes, probably more than you would think, and properly dose your conditioners and ferts and it will most likely go away. Side note, I'm surprised your elephant nose made it through a fish in cycle, aren't they sort of finicky fish? That's good though
 
Elephant nose are VERY finicky !! Hard to feed, very shy. I've had him since the beginning. But like their reputation proceeds them, he is not looking good. Starting to get thin. Probably have days if lucky a week and he will die. ;(
They are known to just stop eating
 
bkiggy said:
Elephant nose are VERY finicky !! Hard to feed, very shy. I've had him since the beginning. But like their reputation proceeds them, he is not looking good. Starting to get thin. Probably have days if lucky a week and he will die. ;(
They are known to just stop eating

Aw that's sad, have you tried using the live red worms from a fishing or sporting good store? Sometimes that does the trick for fish who are refusing to eat
 
I have not... Do you mean blood worms? Or tubifex? Tried a couple times and wouldn't eat them..., all sank to bottom by morning and fouled up water - made ammonia spike. I'm still pulling those out of gravel after 4 weeks. No one really ate them, not even catfish ? Weird huh
Everyone Likes brine shrimp !!!!! Also give them clams and salmon pulverized and frozen
 
I'm going to try them with my peacock eel who I never see eat but is doing fine. They're called red worms and used for fishing, don't know if they're actually blood worms or not. If you go to a sporting goods or fishing store just ask where the live worms are, they generally have night crawlers and another much smaller kind get those, the night crawlers are huge
 
Just tried to find a picture of the packaging online and couldn't, but I did see that Walmart sells them as either red worms or red wrigglers.
 
Red worms are in the fridge in the fishing section at walmart. Ive seen some labeled as trout or panfish worms also. I've fed them to my jd's but they'd probably be a bit big for smaller fish.
 
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