Fish tank is smelly!

[Shermie1]

Hi all. I’m a newbie to the hobby. I have 2 Oranda and 5 mystery snails in a 40 gal fresh tank. The only problem is it’s starting to smell reaaaallly bad after 3-4 days of changing the water/cleaning the filter. Ive added breakdown bacteria etc and I’ve tried using the basic stuff like candles fabreeze in the room but it just doesn’t cut it! It literally smells like old greasy farts and sewage. Does my filter suck? (Top Fin Silenstream 40 Power Filter) Any tips?

 

[Sharkbait19]

How long have you had the tank? How often do you do water changes? How much water do you change?
They do smell, especially if you aren’t really on top of maintenance.

 

[thedon986]

Activated carbon is a wonderful thing

 

[TX_REEF]

activated carbon can help.

 

[Cell]

Candles and febreze in a room with an aquarium is a bad idea. FW probably not as much a concern as a Reef tank, but still not ideal. Not sure why your tank smells so bad.

 

[Naturalreef]

What are your nutrients at? Whenever my tank smelled like sewage, my nutrients tanked and dinoflagellates started to appear.

 

[Shermie1]

How long have you had the tank? How often do you do water changes? How much water do you change?
They do smell, especially if you aren’t really on top of maintenance.

-I have had the tank for about 2.5 months
-I change about 80% of the water with a good clean of the gravel, inside of the filter, wipe the algae from the inside of the tank and I also change filter media as well all at one time once a week. Should I do this more often?

 

[Shermie1]

Candles and febreze in a room with an aquarium is a bad idea. FW probably not as much a concern as a Reef tank, but still not ideal. Not sure why your tank smells so bad.

I’ve switched to just a box of baking soda in the room today to see what happens. Thanks for the heads up!

 

[Shermie1]

What are your nutrients at? Whenever my tank smelled like sewage, my nutrients tanked and dinoflagellates started to appear.

Everything is pretty much in order. I’ve added small doses of calcium recently for the snails - but it definitely smelled before that. Ammonia and nitrate is 0, ph is in a good spot, everything seems pretty ok. How do I find out if the tank has dinoflagellates?

 

[Sharkbait19]

Dinos are more commonly seen in reef tanks.
In a fw you’ll usually see diatoms, hair algae, Cyanobacteria, and black beard algae.

Definitely a good water change schedule, I was worried it would be much lighter.
You can potentially ease up on the filter cleaning, I don’t think you’re doing any favors for beneficial bacteria growth. I only change my filter cartridges once a month for the tanks I use them in.

Also check for any dead snails around the tank - they can really smell.

 

[Naturalreef]

***** I misread your post, didn’t see this was a freshwater tank.****

 

[Sharkbait19]

Nitrate at 0 is no good. Where is your PO4 at? Dinoflagellates are opportunistic, they will take hold quickly with nutrients at zero. The first tell tale sign for me was the smell. Then a brown coating over sand and rock. The only way to tell for sure is with a microscope.

Measure your phosphate and see where it’s at. If it is also near zero, I would start dosing No3 and PO4 to get your numbers up. 100 /1 is what I shoot for and keeps my tank happy. I.e. 10/.1 nitrate to phosphate.

This is a fw system- unless a planted setup, the whole goal is to keep nitrate as close to zero as possible.

 

[BigMonkeyBrain]

-I have had the tank for about 2.5 months
-I change about 80% of the water with a good clean of the gravel, inside of the filter, wipe the algae from the inside of the tank and I also change filter media as well all at one time once a week. Should I do this more often?

Too clean - filter media clean once a month if it needs it. Gravel vac is ok every week. Seperate the tank in sections and vac a different 1/4 every week.

 

[Naturalreef]

Sorry, misread the post.

 

[Sophie"s mom]

Hi all. I’m a newbie to the hobby. I have 2 Oranda and 5 mystery snails in a 40 gal fresh tank. The only problem is it’s starting to smell reaaaallly bad after 3-4 days of changing the water/cleaning the filter. Ive added breakdown bacteria etc and I’ve tried using the basic stuff like candles fabreeze in the room but it just doesn’t cut it! It literally smells like old greasy farts and sewage. Does my filter suck? (Top Fin Silenstream 40 Power Filter) Any tips?

like Cell said, candles and febreeze are are not good. Candles will bring down oxygen in the room over periods of time, and as for febreeze, well you shouldn't be spraying anything in the room with the tank as airborne stuff can get in the tank, and that would be very bad. Just my 2 cents

 

[KrisReef]

Hi all. I’m a newbie to the hobby. I have 2 Oranda and 5 mystery snails in a 40 gal fresh tank. The only problem is it’s starting to smell reaaaallly bad after 3-4 days of changing the water/cleaning the filter. Ive added breakdown bacteria etc and I’ve tried using the basic stuff like candles fabreeze in the room but it just doesn’t cut it! It literally smells like old greasy farts and sewage. Does my filter suck? (Top Fin Silenstream 40 Power Filter) Any tips?

Do you happen to have a baby in the house? My grandson gets a little funky smell when his diaper needs a change. For me that smell is the signal that my Depends are working.

 

[Shermie1]

Too clean - filter media clean once a month if it needs it. Gravel vac is ok every week. Seperate the tank in sections and vac a different 1/4 every week.

The only thing is it gets completely full of algae right off the bat - wondering if I need more than just the filter pad?

 

[BigMonkeyBrain]

The only thing is it gets completely full of algae right off the bat - wondering if I need more than just the filter pad?

The filter has little to do with algae - more snails - I have wood in all my tanks for the snails, I throw in leaves, and feed sometimes twice a day. One if my tanks has a gravel substrate and one has a dirt substrate about 2-inches with a gravel top layer I never touch. I don't have much of a smell, I do use activated carbon.

 

[Sharkbait19]

Algae is going to thrive off nutrients in the water. My source water has high phosphates, so I have to learn to live with it.
A magnetic algae scraper is one of the best tools you can get for algae. Live plants are also great for taking nutrients from algae (and they look good too), but come with their own challenges to grow.

 

[BigMonkeyBrain]

Algae is going to thrive off nutrients in the water. My source water has high phosphates, so I have to learn to live with it.
A magnetic algae scraper is one of the best tools you can get for algae. Live plants are also great for taking nutrients from algae (and they look good too), but come with their own challenges to grow.

Pricey plants are goldfish food !