My 10g is in the main hallway so it is the middle of alot of traffic. It has tahitian moon sand and alot of rocks. Last water change (half a week ago) i moved EVERYTHING out of the tank and cleaned under it. It was grosss but needed to be done. I did the water change and my tank looked great. Before this though my tank would get this HORRIBLE stinch. I mean like within 3 days it would be so bad you would gag as you go by it. AND ITS BACK. My mom said that she thinks it is 1 of 2 things, #1 the sand has gone bad (doubt it is this) anD #2 is the new food i am using (carnivore pellets). I am leaning towards #2 because when i started using it right about the time it started happening. This tank has been set up for about a year and a half to 2 years so it is cycled. It has 2 corycats, 2 upsidedown catfish, and a purple spotted goby (mogurnda mogurnda). If you have any ideas please tell me. I am gonna lean of the food for a week or 2 and see what happens.
Foul Stench
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7Enigma
Aquarium Advice Addict
Rotting food high in protein will definitely fit the bill for a bad smell. Gravel vacs at water changes and not overfeeding will curb most odor issues. When you have large decorations or lots of depressions in the substrate you can get pockets of funk that will slowly rot and not only stink but make the water quality bad too.
Try to make the tank crevices easily accessible with a gravel vac so there are no hiding spots, and make sure you hit them all at each water change. I do 10 gallon PWC's on my 20 gallon and give 5 gallons to the left side of the tank and 5 gallons to the right side making sure I try to hit every inch. But about once a month I'll move my driftwood and large plants and vac underneath as there is always a large amount of funk under there.
Try to make the tank crevices easily accessible with a gravel vac so there are no hiding spots, and make sure you hit them all at each water change. I do 10 gallon PWC's on my 20 gallon and give 5 gallons to the left side of the tank and 5 gallons to the right side making sure I try to hit every inch. But about once a month I'll move my driftwood and large plants and vac underneath as there is always a large amount of funk under there.
Viper
Aquarium Advice FINatic
I'm not sure about the Moon Sand, but I know regular sand needs to be mixed around every couple weeks because it can develop these pockets of funk that I think will give off a smell of sulfer, or rotting eggs. I haven't run into this yet as I've only had my sand set up for two weeks so far, but I think I read that somewhere.
tmcgee
Aquarium Advice Activist
Yeah, sand doesn't "go bad". It does need to be moved which I have snails for and needs to be cleaned at the surface regularly with water changes. I would lean towards the food. How much of this food and how often were you feeding it?
Viper
Aquarium Advice FINatic
Hmm, hopefully it is that because that is an easy fix!
CA_BroncoFan
Aquarium Advice Addict
Gotta go with the food on this one. I sent my wife to the store for some food one time and she came back with an off brand food that after a few days started smelling real bad. (Not a bang on my wife but she just didn't know. Haha)
Ya, well i got back home and it still stank really bad. But there could be leftover food in the tank. So i am gonna give it another half a week and let all the food decay and do another massive water change. I will keep it updated. I know people that have used this food before and it didnt have this effect but they were all 50g+.
