Smelly Tank Curiosity

[ca1ore]

I'm curious whether anyone else can confirm, or refute, the following ….

I've been battling high nitrates in my system (nominally 40-50) and as nitrates have climbed, I have noticed a slight odor from my system after I feed - that 'bayside' smell. About a month ago, I put a sulfur reactor on the tank and have lowered said nitrates to nominally 10-20, with 5 as the target. Guess what, no post feeding odor. Coincidence, correlation …. causation …. dunno! FWIW, the reef tanks that I ran in the early 2000s that had higher nitrates, also had post feed odor. I have no particular thesis, just these curious observations. Comments appreciated …...

 

[Gareth elliott]

Ime tank odor is more closely related to the decaying organics than to nitrate itself. And believe That it is the Ammonia that smells not the nitrate. Useless on a SW setup but in FW system without tannins tds is always higher when the water smells more. Which indirectly will means nitrate is higher as well.

While the ammonia that stays in a mature tank is quickly converted the gas that escapes creates the smell.
^i have no articles to back up any of these ideas lol

 

[ScottR]

I’ve battled higher nitrates forever. I’d say my tank smells like the ocean. There could be a correlation here. It’s not a stinky smell but a strong ocean smell. I do add NSW to my tank. My nitrates run from 25-30

 

[KrisReef]

I’ve noticed smell more from my Skimmer cup but sometimes the water smells like the ocean or a tidal mudflat. I like to add MB-7 whenever it starts off gassing. I figured that a little help from bacteria will help with the smells.
I don’t have no stinking papers to back me up.

 

[C. Eymann]

The result of nitrate being broken down is nitrogenous gases I believe? nitrous oxide? just nitrogen gas? no idea, but possibly that has something to do with the post feed smell?

Wonder if there is not just a correlation with high nitrates and smell, but possibly lower ORP/redox values as well ? lower ORP=more prevalent smell?

 

[Flippers4pups]

Definitely notice a "ocean" smell after opening windows in the house.

 

[Doctorgori]

algae has a slight smell also

 

[clm65]

I had the smell when I was battling high nitrates. I now have essentially zero nitrates since I overdid it with carbon dosing. And I still have the smell.

I did notice more of a smell last week when I inadvertently spilled about a cup of tank water under the sump and had no choice but let it evaporate because I couldn't reach it. So maybe smell is proportional to evaporation rate? Do you know if you are adding more makeup water recently?