How does Ammonia smell ? and do Nitrite and Nitrate have smell too ?

[Monster Goldfish]

Hi Everyone

The question is obvious so let's hear your answers :

How does Ammonia smell ? and do Nitrite and Nitrate have smell too ?


The reason why I'm asking this is because I have an overstocked 4 Fantail Goldfish in a 20 gallons tank and I usullay smell a strange rotten smell coming out from the aquarium and it's disappears when a do a 20% or 30% water change

Note that I don't have water test kit or water conditoner because they are
not available in my country so I don't know if my tank is cycled or not

 

[jlk]

The answer is a simple one. If your tank smells bad and you are already aware it's grossly overstocked, then you likely have some major water quality issues. As suggested on your other thread, start changing atleast 50% of water atleast every other to every day to try and mitigate your circumstances until you can address them properly with a much larger tank. A healthy tank should not smell bad.

 

[Andrew McFadden]

What jlk said is true and could be the problem. I would like to add and ask what type of substrate do you have? And does it smell like sulfur? If so you could have hydrogen sulfide building in the tank somewhere. From my personal experience it normally is coming from a very deep substrate. I have to mix mine around every so often so the smell doesn't come back.

 

[Monster Goldfish]

The answer is a simple one. If your tank smells bad and you are already aware it's grossly overstocked, then you likely have some major water quality issues. As suggested on your other thread, start changing atleast 50% of water atleast every other to every day to try and mitigate your circumstances until you can address them properly with a much larger tank. A healthy tank should not smell bad.

Thank you very much . I'll try to do that as often as possible.

What jlk said is true and could be the problem. I would like to add and ask what type of substrate do you have? And does it smell like sulfur? If so you could have hydrogen sulfide building in the tank somewhere. From my personal experience it normally is coming from a very deep substrate. I have to mix mine around every so often so the smell doesn't come back.

I have small white pebbles as substrate . they are quite thick like half inch or so . Please see the pictures in my other thread : Click here
The substrate might be the source of the problem as you suggested because it smells like sulfur but a very strong one too . Please see the tank's pictures and get back to me.

 

[Borderlesscott]

That substrate is not to deep, should be okay - just gravel vac regularly with the water changes. It's going to take a lot of work as you are overstocked, goldfish are poop machines with a huge bioload and require hefty filtration, water changes with a good conditioner etc even in there required tank size. I think you going to have trouble keeping the smell away. The fact you cannot condition the water means you can not establish a biofilter within the tanks filter making it totally ineffective, the point in a filter is so that good bacteria can grow helping break down the ammonia, nitrite in the tank increasing water quality, as the water your putting in is untreated it is killing it every time this will also give off a smell.

 

[Monster Goldfish]

That substrate is not to deep, should be okay - just gravel vac regularly with the water changes. It's going to take a lot of work as you are overstocked, goldfish are poop machines with a huge bioload and require hefty filtration, water changes with a good conditioner etc even in there required tank size. I think you going to have trouble keeping the smell away. The fact you cannot condition the water means you can not establish a biofilter within the tanks filter making it totally ineffective, the point in a filter is so that good bacteria can grow helping break down the ammonia, nitrite in the tank increasing water quality, as the water your putting in is untreated it is killing it every time this will also give off a smell.

That's really disappointing ! I'll try hard to get Aquaclear 50 soon and also try
to get water conditioner ASAP Thanks a lot Borderlesscott

 

[Borderlesscott]

No problem, must be difficult trying to be a good fish keeper where you are with limited resources at hand. At least you are trying which is more than some people do.