Sump fish smell

Bruce7267ad · Jul 2, 2019

I just noticed a fishy smell coming from my sump I just set up my sump about a week and a half ago I have a carbon and a gfo dual reactor that takes water out of it and puts it by the return I also have a skimmer and a refugium I don't see anything decaying to cause the smell. is it a good idea to add a hang on the back filter with just carbon in it to prevent these kind of odors?
Thanks guys

lapin · Jul 2, 2019

You will get some smell from your sump. Normally the smell will be stronger when cycling. Carbon can help. You are sure its fishy and not rotten egg smell? Also what is in the sump, new algae?

Bruce7267ad · Jul 2, 2019

lapin said:
You will get some smell from your sump. Normally the smell will be stronger when cycling. Carbon can help. You are sure its fishy and not rotten egg smell? Also what is in the sump, new algae?

3 Chambers first chamber has my skimmer in it. With the power head that does the pulling to the gfo can carbon reactor the second chamber has my refugium in it and my Cato macroalgae and live rock down in the bottom my third chamber is Dusty return pump and where am I treated reactor water goes and in between the second and third chamber I have my bubble trap Wis course filter pad in between the only thing I can think of would be my skimmer it's still breaking in in the cup was full this morning of Clearwater but still had a slight odor to it kind of weird maybe I should add some more bacteria in it let it eat on anything dying and I can do a test to see if there's any high ammonia levels but sadly my problem has always been extremely high nitrate problems with hardly any ammonia and no nitrites detected in my tests

lapin · Jul 2, 2019

The skimmer cup will smell as it is pulling out junk from the water. Not unusual, specially in a closed cabinet. If you have no ammonia or nitrites you have bacteria.
I would just let things run for a while and see if this will bring down your nitrates. If they do not drop in a month or so then we can try more options such as carbon dosing to help grow more bacteria.