How did I forget the smell of a cycling tank?

[trackfast]

Started a fishless cycle in my tank with a raw piece of shrimp and some LR. I don't remember it smelling like this for my last tank. lol Does anyone try to mask the odor? Or do you just live with it knowing it'll only be a few days?

 

[BillyD918]

I havent notcied any smell from my tank and it's ben cycling for a few weeks now. The only smell I encounter is when I empty my protein skimmer box and it does stink...

 

[trackfast]

There's definitely an aroma; it's the first thing I noticed this morning. It wasn't unexpected; decaying shrimp in water is going to smell. lol

 

[JOMA]

if i acidently put too much ammonia in my tank it will smell REALLY bad, like ammonia, who would have thought? lolll

 

[Salt-life-fl]

Guess I'll break the ice in here, I'm a little over 2 weeks into my cycle. Just added 2 shrimp last Thursday and it is smelling up the whole house. Girlfriend not to happy about it either, tried to explain to her that this was better than putting fish to certain death, but don't think I won that argument.

 

[carey]

welcome to the forum salt life.

I did my fishless cycle with ammonia, I'm kinda glad I did now. Rotting shrimp cannot be a pleasant thing. Buy your girlfriend a yankee candle, will fix up that stink right off and get you brownie points too LOL

 

[Salt-life-fl]

Thanks, great idea, it's not to pleasant, I'll have to agree with her on that. Haha

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

Once you have an ammonia reading of say... 2ppm, you can take the shrimp out. Maybe that bit of information (along with the candle) will make things better?

 

[trackfast]

Guess I'll break the ice in here, I'm a little over 2 weeks into my cycle. Just added 2 shrimp last Thursday and it is smelling up the whole house. Girlfriend not to happy about it either, tried to explain to her that this was better than putting fish to certain death, but don't think I won that argument.

Usually the strong smell is gone after a day or two; I just had forgotten that particular "scent". lol How big is the tank you're cycling?
And as Kurt mentioned, you can remove the shrimp after you start getting some ammonia. Some like to wait til it hits 4ppm; I agree that 2ppm is enough.

 

[Salt-life-fl]

It a 50 gal corner tank. I have 21 lbs of live rock in there, and some coral skeletons. My ammonia hasn't gone above 1. I did cheat with some live sand. A few days after I add the live rock I was getting 0 readings on ammonia and nitrite, so that's when I added the shrimp, and it's been going up ever since. Didn't get to do a water test today, but I did get ride of the smell, my filter cartridges needed to be changed. Dropped in the new ones last night and no smell today.