Tank Smells

savetheocean · Nov 8, 2018

My saltwater tank smells awful. It stinks the entire room up.

Any suggestions?

Hitman · Nov 8, 2018

Is it the water itself or the stink from your Skimmer?

KrisReef · Nov 8, 2018

Water change. Clean the substrate.
Add/change carbon.
Add bacteria in a bottle.

savetheocean · Nov 8, 2018

Hitman said:
Is it the water itself or the stink from your Skimmer?

I honestly can't tell. Cleaning it and preparing for a water change tomorrow.

savetheocean · Nov 8, 2018

Definitely coming from sump

Hitman · Nov 8, 2018

It’s normal for the Skimmer cup to stink bad as well it’s all the fish poop and pee. Lol. Take a small cup and take some water out of your tank and smell it. If it’s the water then increase flow and run some carbon even after your water change. I run carbon 1 week on 2 weeks off and I’ve never done a water change.

savetheocean · Nov 8, 2018

Theres an extreme amount of algae growing down in the sump. Im guessing thats the cause, right?

PDR · Nov 10, 2018

Have you tried running some carbon? Once upon a time I had similar algae growth in my sump and it didn't cause the room to smell, but I also ran carbon regularly.

saltyfilmfolks · Nov 10, 2018

What’s the smell?
Dead algae at the beach?
Tide pool?
Toilet?
Rotten eggs?

Zotch · Nov 11, 2018

Why is algae growing in your sump? Do you have a light down there or no flow? I would drain and remove it and give it a good cleaning if possible.

savetheocean · Nov 11, 2018

Zotch said:
Why is algae growing in your sump? Do you have a light down there or no flow? I would drain and remove it and give it a good cleaning if possible.

I do have a light down there. I also removed most of the algae today.

savetheocean · Nov 11, 2018

saltyfilmfolks said:
What’s the smell?
Dead algae at the beach?
Tide pool?
Toilet?
Rotten eggs?

It smells like stagnant musty water if you know what I mean.

KrisReef · Nov 11, 2018

savetheocean said:
It smells like stagnant musty water if you know what I mean.

My tank (its in the garage) was smelling kind of funky yesterday so I gave it a few drops of MB7 bacteria and it didn't smell this morning. I have had the skimmer off recently while I am "testing" Purge and the garage has been getting colder and the tank has been 2 degrees lower, so lots of things have been moving about that could have impacted my bio-filtration.