Water stinks... Why? Long established tank.

[dturner]

See it's not a rotten fish smell so I don't think that's it. Plus this smell has been going on for a long time. I'm just now trying to fix it because my skimmer is finally working properly after having my sump water level too high for a long time. Skimmer working properly means the smell is amplified by 15x.

 

[BiG-D]

Here is a problem i had a a while back i had some live rock that i removed from the display had it out for a few weeks to kill off some poylps i didnt want when i put it back in i got a bad smell then for some reason i pulled it out to move it around it smelled so bad i almost barfed i guess all the worms and such that were living in the rock died and because the rock was not left out for a long time to let it dry out completely they rotted slowly. maybe its your ock just a thought hope that helps

 

[Braver69]

A dead turbo snail or other larger snail can cause a horrible stench as well. Might want to check for that.

 

[larangcon]

I noticed there's a curtain behind the DT is it possible this curtain got wet before and dried up, if not the curtain, try turning off your lights to your refugium for a day or so, with heavy light fixtures its possible the heat is heating up underneath the top black plastic glass support; debri might have gotten on the inside of the plastic and the heat from your light is causing the stench.

 

[tektite]

How often do you normally do water changes, and how much? What's your coral list, specifically interested in what softies you have.

 

[resortez]

I noticed there's a curtain behind the DT is it possible this curtain got wet before and dried up, if not the curtain, try turning off your lights to your refugium for a day or so, with heavy light fixtures its possible the heat is heating up underneath the top black plastic glass support; debri might have gotten on the inside of the plastic and the heat from your light is causing the stench.

+1. also, not sure if you have carpet, as flooring in that room. if you do, sniff around the bottom of the stand & the curtain. once, i went on a fragging craze & kept using the same towel through out this craze for 4 days. it never completely dried up, always remained moist, then left it pretty damp in a bundle inside a bucket. a few days later, that thing threw a musty smell & had no clue where it came from. went through the entire tank searching for it, getting my hand wet. so i reached for the towel in the bucket, to dry my hand & then my hand stank. it was the damp towel. similar smell to what you are describing. hence my question about having carpet in that room. maybe through time, a few drops here & there, combined with accidental spills, will keep that carpet moist & produce a stench.

 

[resortez]

second response to your question, is that strangely enough, your skimmer enhances the smell when switched on. my question now is, what products do you feed? that could be causing the smell, especially when being skimmed out. also, have you ever overhauled your tank? it might be time for an overhaul. another question is on you mentioning bubbles within your sand bed, do you ever gravel vacuum your sand bed? if you do so, does the water being pulled out produce a smell? i ask because those bubbles could be hydrogen sulfate, which is a type of acid & gas build up from decomposing matter or death. if you do gravel vac, try not to release those bubbles into the tank & syphon them out. you dont want the gasses & acid floating around your tank. i hope to have helped out. good luck & happy reefing!

 

[tson]

Did you make your own fish food? Any garlic in there? That makes it smells very bad.

 

[cultivatedcoral]

Be careful disturbing your sand bed. You clearly have some nutrients in your tank if you are pulling out some stinky foam/skimmate. Clean your skimmer 2x per week if necessary to keep the smell from getting worse. Turning off your skimmer will only cause more problems. If your sand bed has pockets of trapped what I call "poison" and it gets released by disturbing the sand bed that can crash your entire tank. As everyone else said running carbon may help too.

 

[mcarroll]

second response to your question, is that strangely enough, your skimmer enhances the smell when switched on. my question now is, what products do you feed? that could be causing the smell, especially when being skimmed out. also, have you ever overhauled your tank? it might be time for an overhaul. another question is on you mentioning bubbles within your sand bed, do you ever gravel vacuum your sand bed? if you do so, does the water being pulled out produce a smell? i ask because those bubbles could be hydrogen sulfate, which is a type of acid & gas build up from decomposing matter or death. if you do gravel vac, try not to release those bubbles into the tank & syphon them out. you dont want the gasses & acid floating around your tank. i hope to have helped out. good luck & happy reefing!

+1

SAND BED
You have a pretty deep sand bed in places - and I don't know if it's just an articfact of the photo, but it looks like the sand under the surface in the high spots is brown.

If that visual is correct, I'd siphon out the whole sand bed over the course of 4-5 (or more) water changes and either start over or (my pref) go bare-bottom.

I would do this regardless of the smell too....but there's a good shot the smell will go with the detritus.

SKIMMER
If the sand bed is that bad (let us know), I wonder if the skimmer and sump aren't holding a similar smelly load? When's the last time to did a full breakdown on the skimmer and siphoned out the sump?


Hope this helps!

-Matt

 

[evan.lundberg4]

+1

SAND BED
You have a pretty deep sand bed in places - and I don't know if it's just an articfact of the photo, but it looks like the sand under the surface in the high spots is brown.

If that visual is correct, I'd siphon out the whole sand bed over the course of 4-5 (or more) water changes and either start over or (my pref) go bare-bottom.

I would do this regardless of the smell too....but there's a good shot the smell will go with the detritus.

SKIMMER
If the sand bed is that bad (let us know), I wonder if the skimmer and sump aren't holding a similar smelly load? When's the last time to did a full breakdown on the skimmer and siphoned out the sump?


Hope this helps!

-Matt

+1 on this. IMO it's the sand. I had the same thing happen to my old tank, only not as severe. Sand was pretty dirty and as soon as I removed it the smell went away. The sand I removed had that rotten ocean stink to it, kind of like a clam flat smell. I pulled mine all at once and did a full overhaul and that did the trick.

 

[mcarroll]

Depending on the scenario, removing 100% of the sand bed could be harmful due to removal of too much of the biofilter.

Taking a few days allows for any shift onto the live rock that may be needed. I just like to play it conservatively.

-Matt

 

[slojmn]

Depending on the scenario, removing 100% of the sand bed could be harmful due to removal of too much of the biofilter.

Taking a few days allows for any shift onto the live rock that may be needed. I just like to play it conservatively.

-Matt

I agree, My guess is your sand bed is the source. All of that "poison" is trapped down there so be very conservative about siphoning the sand out. I would do a 4-6"x4-6" square and try very hard not to release a lot of detrius into the tank while removing the sand. Take out the sand in the measured square to the bottom glass. A lot of time the sand will be kind of caked(for lack of a better word) and will allow you to remove sections quite efficiently. GO SLOW!!! you've lived with the smell for this long, do little bits each week so your system can adjust and catch up to the loss of the bio filter you are taking out each week.

 

[dturner]

Will take more time to individually respond to posts later, but as far as removing the sand bed... How would my pistol shrimp and watchman goby fare without sand during the replacement? I know I want a sandbed and I would end up replacing it with a shallow sand bed but will my shrimp and goby be okay during the swap? also someone mentioned they removed the sand and did a complete overhaul, do you mean you just replaced the sand or did you totally redo your tank? THANKS EVERYONE!! I'm so appreciative of all of your responses.

 

[evan.lundberg4]

Will take more time to individually respond to posts later, but as far as removing the sand bed... How would my pistol shrimp and watchman goby fare without sand during the replacement? I know I want a sandbed and I would end up replacing it with a shallow sand bed but will my shrimp and goby be okay during the swap? also someone mentioned they removed the sand and did a complete overhaul, do you mean you just replaced the sand or did you totally redo your tank? THANKS EVERYONE!! I'm so appreciative of all of your responses.

Yeah I removed every single thing from my tank during my overhaul and replaced the old sand with a very shallow bed of crushed aragonite. I scrubbed rocks and scraped the walls off in the tank. As far as I know I never had any issues with mini cycles. Definitely an extreme way of doing it but my tank had essentially crashed so I felt it was necessary.

 

[evan.lundberg4]

Oh and I just had all my livestock in a big Rubbermaid except for my pistol shrimp who I put in a bucket so I didn't lose or kill him. Took a few hours so I had a powerhead and heater in the containers

 

[mcarroll]

Will take more time to individually respond to posts later, but as far as removing the sand bed... How would my pistol shrimp and watchman goby fare without sand during the replacement? I know I want a sandbed and I would end up replacing it with a shallow sand bed but will my shrimp and goby be okay during the swap? also someone mentioned they removed the sand and did a complete overhaul, do you mean you just replaced the sand or did you totally redo your tank? THANKS EVERYONE!! I'm so appreciative of all of your responses.

Well, sand isn't as required as you might think. They're pretty smart and will build out of stones, rubble, shells and whatever is available.

You can also just have a sandy patch for them.

Even if you decide to put a full sand bed back in, I'd put 1/2" to 1" and no more. The crew will still pile it up - you don't want it to become a problem again though, if you can help it.

Also in that vein, you want to do anything else you can to prevent it in the future as well - improve flow, decrease feedings, increase cleanings, etc.

-Matt

 

[resortez]

i also like a slighlty deep sand bed. i keep mine at 1 1/2"-2". i do have a large crew sifting my sand all day. a pair of jawfish, nassarius snails, sand sifting stars & with time, bristle & spaghetti worms popped up. caution with the worms, though. they sting like hell. if you ever do get stung, remove the bristles with tape. having that in mind, its the reason why i own a melanarus wrasse & mystery wrasse. both these guys keep my worm population under control. i have no clue how they are capable of picking up one of these worms, smash them against rock for the kill & swallow them whole, but they do & its neat to watch them hunt for critters.