Need help with this smell

paul01 · May 9, 2019

My tank is smelling like rotten eggs my wife wants me to take the tank down it smells so bad what could be the cause of this?

Kellie in CA · May 9, 2019

Did you try carbon?

hdsoftail1065 · May 9, 2019

+ 1 on the carbon question, how is you return flow? This might also help.

Dr. Reef said:
Rotten egg smell is generally related to hydrogen sulfide gas in our tanks. It would be trapped under sand or in reactors with very very slow flow rate.
Your biggest culprit will be a cal reactor or denitrator. Or someone or something stirred up sand bed.
HS gas is not very soluble in water so it will be in air but can mix with water to cause fish to look and act drunk.
Air out the room and try to find the source of slow flow reactors or maybe someone stirred the sand.
Activated carbon will help reduce some of it.
Leave skimmer on and try pushing more air through the tank either with help of fans or more air in skimmer or air stone.

paul01 · May 9, 2019

Kellie in CA said:
Did you try carbon?

I have a GFO & CARBON running in my tank

Nicholas Conner · May 9, 2019

Hi @paul01,

Here is a thread that may help:
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/the-most-rotten-eggs.578452/#post-5893943

paul01 · May 9, 2019

Nicholas Conner said:
Hi @paul01,

Here is a thread that may help:
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/the-most-rotten-eggs.578452/#post-5893943

Thank you I will take a look at it

Dr. Reef · May 9, 2019

that smell will be hydrogen sulfide gas, which occurs in reactors with very slow rate of flow. do you have nitrate reactor? or deep sandbed where gas could be trapped in etc?

vetteguy53081 · May 10, 2019

Try light siphoning and consider adding a protien skimmer

w2inc · May 12, 2019

Dr. Reef said:
that smell will be hydrogen sulfide gas, which occurs in reactors with very slow rate of flow. do you have nitrate reactor? or deep sandbed where gas could be trapped in etc?

More flow and increase O2 will help a whole lot of you already have carbon running.

mdbronco · Jun 2, 2019

Just to add a question so as not to start another thread - what exactly is the remedy if it is hydrogen sulfide? Increase aeration? Siphoning sand more aggressively? Nothing? More water changes? Running carbon is a given of course.

Thanks!

Dr. Reef · Jun 2, 2019

HS is not very soluble in water and will escape soon with vigorous water movements and waves etc we have in our tanks but while its escaping it can do a lot of damage to fish and cause death.
If you have any equipment that requires very slow rate, make sure to keep an eye on it and dont let HS build up. Increasing flow will generally do the trick.
Sifting sand bed is also good practice for pockets of HS from developing.
More aeration more movement of water to make air/gas exchange the better.