Disgusting and Awful smell from rotting Chaeto

Hentz · Jul 7, 2018

Afternoon everyone!

My 120 has slowly been crashing and I've been losing a lot of my SPS. Ready to sell everything and give up, I turned my tank off last night with a bit of a surprise.... The second all the pumps were shut down, I noticed an incredibly horrid stench coming from my tank. I smelt my skimmer cup.. To my surprise that smelled pleasant compared to what the actual smell was.

I kept hearing something very faint and finally found it coming from my Chaeto Reactor. I smelled the outlet tube and realized that is exactly where the smell was coming from. My Chaeto Reactor had been off with the chaeto inside dying and rotting. My tank had been crashing and I couldn't for the life of my think of what it was.. I had a small dKH spike from 9-11.5 almost 2 months ago, but figured the die off wouldn't still be happening from that.

My current belief is the rotting and dying chaeto was leeching back into my tank, since it was in my sump.. Would this cause corals to die in my tank?

Thanks for your help guys!

#reefsquad

DIvid · Jul 7, 2018

Hentz said:
Afternoon everyone!

My 120 has slowly been crashing and I've been losing a lot of my SPS. Ready to sell everything and give up, I turned my tank off last night with a bit of a surprise.... The second all the pumps were shut down, I noticed an incredibly horrid stench coming from my tank. I smelt my skimmer cup.. To my surprise that smelled pleasant compared to what the actual smell was.

I kept hearing something very faint and finally found it coming from my Chaeto Reactor. I smelled the outlet tube and realized that is exactly where the smell was coming from. My Chaeto Reactor had been off with the chaeto inside dying and rotting. My tank had been crashing and I couldn't for the life of my think of what it was.. I had a small dKH spike from 9-11.5 almost 2 months ago, but figured the die off wouldn't still be happening from that.

My current belief is the rotting and dying chaeto was leeching back into my tank, since it was in my sump.. Would this cause corals to die in my tank?

Thanks for your help guys!

#reefsquad

If the rotting cheato was able to actually contaminate water entering the system then yes, it could cause some of the nutrients and other contaminates the cheato gathered while growing to make their way back into the tank. Though to be honest I doubt a small amount of that water making its way into the system would cause your system to fall off slowly.

Crabs McJones · Jul 7, 2018

This is %100 a possibility. I had a similar issue about 6 months ago. Long story short the rotting chaeto caused alot of bleaching and alot of my lps corals to get upset. I'm on the rebound now, but this is very likely your issue

Colin_S · Nov 2, 2019

I know this is an old thread but I have just had a very similar problem. my chaeto which I've never been able to grow, I just got a large amount a few weeks ago, recently my sump absolutely stinks like rotten gabbage/poo. my corals are not doing good and the smell is definitely from the chaeto. it was very springy and healthy now its breaking up and saggy, it's gone from 10cm radius to 3cm.
a few questions,
should I remove whats left of the chaeto?
I have 0 iron, should I dose and how much?

6 months and I've not grown any chaeto, I've recently upgraded my light to a ai prime fuge light,, and no luck. is it purely to do with lack of iron?
all other parameters are fine, plenty of p04 and nitrate for it to feed of, icp test confirmed all other elements are good.

BonelessEvil · May 3, 2020

The difference with my situation is that the tank is doing the best it ever has, acros, etc. My Chaeto might be rotting, as it looks dirty like it's been collecting dust, a grayish green. A few months ago my Refugium light went out for several days, without me noticing until the smell came. We fixed the lighting issue and everything has been going pretty well– with the same chaeto. Still, the smell came back last night, the first time in weeks.

We've adjusted our Skimmer to make sure the bubble line is hitting the bottom of the cup, to make sure that was not the issue. Is there a chance my chaeto is still rotten? Would it turn brown or something like that?

EDIT: after reading some more, it looks like mine has become a detritus trap, the dust like stuff sitting inside it. We're washing it out with some water. If it's not brown, we shouldn't flush it down?