Ammonia smell without ammonia?

[Squiffy]

Sorry for the upside down picture. I only have an ammonia testing kit for now. My tank smells like ammonia though and if I'm reading this test correctly the levels are near zero. Any idea what could be causing the smell?

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[Linwood]

Even fairly high ammonia levels (say 4ppm) don't smell to my nose. I doubt what you are smelling is actually ammonia, but is likely some other smell. Perhaps describe what else is going on in the tank, someone might recognize something that smells.

Mine had a very strong smell for about 24 hours while it cycled. I think (emphasis on think) it was when a bacterial bloom that left the water quite milky started dying. It went away on its own.

Carbon or purigen can remove a lot of organic matter and might help with the smell.

 

[Squiffy]

No bloom as far as I can tell. I added a frog and a new snail yesterday, otherwise nothing else has changed. 20-30% water changes weekly.

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[Squiffy]

Ok, so I was about to install a thing to slow down the water coming out of the filter to lessen the current and I found this on the filter. I just changed the filter on the 8th and it didn't look like this. And it seems that this is the origin of the smell. What is it?

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[Linwood]

Oh no...This has been seen before. Run: The Blob

But more seriously - no idea. But that should help someone diagnose.

 

[Squiffy]

It smelled awful. I cleaned it off right after I took this picture.

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