Fresh air makes tank smell bad?

[BVF]

My tank is near the back door leading outside. For some reason, when I open the door, fresh air coming inside moving past the tank makes the whole room smell like low tide, like bad. Anyone have any insight as to why that is happening? If I don’t tackle this one, I’m not sure how long this tank is going to last. I am running a sump and skimmer, cleaned both well over the weekend, and this AM, it was really bad again. Thanks in advance.

 

[Glenner’sreef]

My tank is near the back door leading outside. For some reason, when I open the door, fresh air coming inside moving past the tank makes the whole room smell like low tide, like bad. Anyone have any insight as to why that is happening? If I don’t tackle this one, I’m not sure how long this tank is going to last. I am running a sump and skimmer, cleaned both well over the weekend, and this AM, it was really bad again. Thanks in advance.

Do you run any carbon??? Could be your answer. Good luck.

 

[BVF]

Do you run any carbon??? Could be your answer. Good luck.

Yep, Chemipure Elite in a reactor, and a dry bag of straight carbon on top of the skimmer. Feels like I’m missing something…like the fresh air is causing a reaction of some kind.

 

[Glenner’sreef]

Yep, Chemipure Elite in a reactor, and a dry bag of straight carbon on top of the skimmer. Feels like I’m missing something…like the fresh air is causing a reaction of some kind.

Is the Chemipure new? Or saturated? Dead snail?

 

[thatmanMIKEson]

My tank is near the back door leading outside. For some reason, when I open the door, fresh air coming inside moving past the tank makes the whole room smell like low tide, like bad. Anyone have any insight as to why that is happening? If I don’t tackle this one, I’m not sure how long this tank is going to last. I am running a sump and skimmer, cleaned both well over the weekend, and this AM, it was really bad again. Thanks in advance.

Whats the humidity in the room, with a lower humidity it seems to lower the smell, and certain algaes can give a smell of low tide then the rise in humidity could make it linger in the air differently.

 

[BVF]

Is the Chemipure new? Or saturated? Dead snail?

New-ish, maybe 4 weeks. I rinse it weekly, most recently last weekend. Not seeing anything dead, and the water is clear.

 

[BVF]

Whats the humidity in the room, with a lower humidity it seems to lower the smell, and certain algaes can give a smell of low tide then the rise in humidity could make it linger in the air differently.

Could be onto something there, thanks. Room humidity according to the nearby thermostat is 51%. I’ll check again after hanging the door open for a bit and see if that changes anything.

Very little algae right now, some Chaeto in the fuge, but it isn’t thriving, and doesn’t smell.

Its strange that I cannot find the source of the smell, but that overall it gets bad when fresh air is introduced.

 

[Tonycass12]

I'll bet its just air blowing over your skimmer cup. Put your face right down by it with the door closed and you will probably smell the same thing. They make little disks to load with carbon to set over the skimmer cup and help reduce the odor(i only just recently found out about these from another r2r post).

 

[Erick Armanii]

Mine does the same thing and I honestly never paid any mind to it figure it was all part of reefing. In my instance I notice the smell is stronger when the skimmer needs cleaning. Also, I wouldn’t run carbon 24/7 if you intend on keeping tangs.

let me know your findings!

 

[ReefEco]

Check out the StinkSink, which will help with any skimmer odor you might have...