Water smell

[RRsNano]

- 25g IM Lagoon
Temp: 78°f
pH: 8.2
Sg: 1.026
dKH: 8
Ca: 400
Mg: 1320
Ammonia: 0
NitrIte: 0
NitrAte: 5ppm
Return: Mightyjet 326gph (set on highest setting)
MP10: Reefcrest @ 30%
WC: 5g every two weeks (should I start doing a weekly water change?)


This tank has been set up since for 3 months (4 months if you included the rocks cycling). I cycled the rocks in a brute for a little over a month using ammonia as a food source. Once the rocks were cycled I added them to the tank along with a clown, goby and blenny. I've since added a few zoas, acans, a duncan and 2 favias. I added Tropic Eden Mesoflakes about a month ago to the tank. The sand was too coarse so I replaced the sand last friday with Tropic Eden Tonga Pink.

Last night I noticed my water had an earthy smell to it but not nasty. This morning my house smelled a little off, even my son noticed it. I added carbon to the tank and a little bit ago I used a acrylic rod to stir the sand up and I smelled rotten eggs, nasty. The sandbed is about a 1 1/2" deep.

I started a thread here about a some type of algae coming out of the coarse sand and on growing on a few frags and a local area of glass;

Is this hair algae?

I noticed this the other day. It looks like whiskers. Is this hair algae?

www.reef2reef.com

I have diatoms on the rock and a little on the sand bed but with the sandbed not even being in the tank a week how is it already smelling like this? I feed very little LRS nano food every 2-3 days, about the size of my pinky nail. I target feed reefroids once a week to the acans so I don't think I have too many nutrients in the tank? I have noticed a lot of detritus settling on top of the sand and I'll suction it out every few days. It's hard to get the MP10 just right to keep the detritus suspended and go into the overflows due to my rock structure so maybe that's causing the smell?

The fish are fine and all of the zoas are open and the duncan is open so I don't think the whatever is causing the water smell is affecting anything, yet. Any ideas? Should I remove the sand?

 

[Spare time]

So the smell is common and that is one reason why people run carbon. I never run a tank without some sort of carbon.


However, never stir up the sand unless you frequently siphon it. You can kick up decaying matter, ammonia, hydrogen sulfide, etc.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Rotten egg smell is hydrogen sulfide and definitely stop stirring it up.

Might be best to try to remove it.

I discuss it here:

Hydrogen Sulfide and the Reef Aquarium by Randy Holmes-Farley - Reefkeeping.com

 

[RRsNano]

Turns out it was the point of sale Neotherm heater going bad!

I just fed the tank and noticed the smell really bad in the rear area, specifically where the heater was. Before I fed there was a lot of micro bubbles in the right overflow chamber and the chamber next to it where the heater was but no bubbles on the left overflow? I looked closer and saw a lot of bubbles starting to come out of the heater and when I removed the heater the smell was awful. Even in my sink it's stinking my house up. Time for a water change. That was what we've been smelling, it wasnt the sand after all.

I knew better than the buy the heater due to the bad reviews of it leaking but it was one of the only ones that perfectly fit the 25g IM rear chamber. That was a waste of money! I have a titanium backup but it's too long for the rear chamber so it's in the display. Now the hunt begins for a new heater.

Any suggestions for a 20 / 25g IM Nuvo tank????