Zer0
is back to save the day!
Can someone tell me why my tank water smells like rotting eggs? Its a wier smell sorta like sulfer.
Eww Smell
- Thread starter Zer0
- Start date
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OP
OP
Zer0
is back to save the day!
bump.
Seriously, my tank smells bad. Like really bad. I dont know what to do besides get all the water out. Which im doing right now. lol. Anyone know why this happened?
Seriously, my tank smells bad. Like really bad. I dont know what to do besides get all the water out. Which im doing right now. lol. Anyone know why this happened?
Drayven
Aquarium Advice Activist
This is the brand new sand you just got or an older tank?
veetors
Aquarium Advice Regular
Something died.......
OP
OP
Zer0
is back to save the day!
Ok, so its new sand.. and no fish lol, so i havent fed anything to anyone. Also, i think my bacteria colony died off because i didnt feed it and they started rotting like HN1 said because it smelt like rotting eggs, so ya. Doesnt matter anymore, i drained out the tank, took out the sand and cleaned the tank.
jsoong
Aquarium Advice Addict
Rotting egg smell is H2S ... one of the killer gases.
With sand substrate that is not well aerated, things rots in the anaerobic pockets & form H2S. When you release the gas (say with tank maintenance) it can kill fish. <This is much more problematic in ponds with a thick layer of muck at the bottom.>
For now, totally cleaning & rinsing the sand will do the trick. However, once the tank is set up, you will need to prevent a recurrence by stirring the sand up weekly, or better yet, have someone do it for you. <Like a bunch of Malaysian trumpet snails.>
With sand substrate that is not well aerated, things rots in the anaerobic pockets & form H2S. When you release the gas (say with tank maintenance) it can kill fish. <This is much more problematic in ponds with a thick layer of muck at the bottom.>
For now, totally cleaning & rinsing the sand will do the trick. However, once the tank is set up, you will need to prevent a recurrence by stirring the sand up weekly, or better yet, have someone do it for you. <Like a bunch of Malaysian trumpet snails.>
Drayven
Aquarium Advice Activist
If I'm not mistaken he just setup this tank and got the sand like 3 or 4 days ago so i don't think there would be enough time for gases to build up.
Not too sure on what is causing it. Any missing fish? Rotting food in the tank, (looks like a white fungus)? You can run some activated carbon to help get rid of the smell... but you'll definitely want to find the source of it.
I recently changed my substrate to playsand in my 10g a while ago. It has been a while and haven't noticed any smells. I stir my sand with some Kuhli loaches and the handle to my fish net once a week.
I recently changed my substrate to playsand in my 10g a while ago. It has been a while and haven't noticed any smells. I stir my sand with some Kuhli loaches and the handle to my fish net once a week.
WhiteDevil
Aquarium Advice Addict
My sand is over two months old, and my old tank was 10 months of sand and no smell.
