Smelly tank?

[triggerfishfan]

Ok so my tank smells like soil. That's the closest thing I can describe. After my scare with my mollies, I did a 10% change daily for 2 days adding tapsafe and some ammonia remover. The tank went cloudy after I had done this and added some water from my LFS when I got my sucking loach. I then did a 25% change and the tank became cloudy.

When we went to feed the critters last night, we noticed it smells. Tank is still cloudy today but the fish seem happy enough. All food I put in is eaten within a minute or two so Im not putting too much in I wouldn't say. And I have only put half an algae tablet in at a time as they are HUGE and that has been eaten up over night (only crumbs remain)

I currently have 2 mollies and a Chinese algae eater in a 19L tank.

Advice gratefully received

 

[Masha]

If it's a sort of "fresh soil on a rainy day" smell, that's perfectly normal.

Did you see our responses to your other post? I'm a bit concerned that your tank might not be cycled... and unless you know how to deal with that your fish may not survive

 

[triggerfishfan]

If it's a sort of "fresh soil on a rainy day" smell, that's perfectly normal.

Did you see our responses to your other post? I'm a bit concerned that your tank might not be cycled... and unless you know how to deal with that your fish may not survive

I did thanks. I am now allowing my tank to cycle with the fish in.

 

[Masha]

Good! And I hope it goes smoothly.

I hope that more knowledgeable members than me will comment if I'm wrong, but as far as I know using an ammonia remover is not a great idea while you are trying to cycle a tank

 

[Caliban07]

Cloudy water is normal at the start of your cycle. It's called a bacteria bloom and will settle in a few days. Your doing the right things now just keep testing your parameters and changing water.

The problem with ammolock is that it is masks the source of the problem of having high ammonia levels. It also renders the ammonia test kit useless and forces you to redose every 24-48 hours to lock out more recently added ammonia (fish in cycle) and because nitrifying bacteria can still process ammonium, nitrites will still spike. You may as well just change the water.

Ammolock is good if you naturally have high ammonia in tap water. You can lock the ammonia out until it is processed (by an established tank)

Water changes are actually removing ammonia and should not be substituted.

 

[Fishperson]

I think almost all tanks smell a bit.

But really, none of those fish should be in a 5 gallon tank.

 

[Rivercats]

A bit of carbon in your filter will remove the tank smell but as already mentioned all those fish are much too large for a 5g tank. A single Betta or shrimp are the only inhabitants that are suitable for a tank that size.