stench

753 Views 2 Replies 3 Participants Last post by niko, Dec 20, 2004

baj

Discussion Starter · Dec 20, 2004

Hi, for some unknown reason I decided to smell the air above my tank today and it was reeking (the fish were swimming on the top too). It smelled like hydrogen sulphide and methane (rotten eggs, swamp gas type of smell). Is it possible that the gravel(eco-complete+flouritemix and a small amount of epoxy coated gravel(~0.5-1lb) for added volume on a terraced part) may have undergone that anaerobic thing? I also realized that I had used cotton pads once in my HOB filter and then left it there, forgot about it, for more than a month. Also, I did some heavy feeding the last few days, with frozen bloodworms, frozen brine shrimp and live BBS, I dont recall any more food going uneaten immediately, than normal. I had to leave for work but I plant to completely change the water, refill and empty again, this evening and was looking for suggestions/pointers to the problem and how to combat it. Thanks!
-b

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pineapple

· #2 · Dec 20, 2004

I would transfer the fish to another location until you can figure out the problem. That will take some stress off both the fish and you.

- stop the filter and clean it out with de-chlorinated water.
- do a substantial water change and vacuum any detritus up.
- re-establish the filter and see what happens

Andrew Cribb

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niko

· #3 · Dec 20, 2004

Baj,

I had a severe SO2 poisoning once. My entire apartment smelled just a little bit like rotten eggs for a few days before the flora/fauna started to die.

One morning I found most of the fish had dead, with only a few gasping for air at the surface. Also in the course of the next few days most of the plants died too.

In my case it all came from the substrate - I had pulled a lot of plants about a week before and a lot of roots were left in the gravel (100% Fluorite). Withouth the live plants to supply Oxygen the roots had started to rot.

Stirring the substrate, cleaning the debries out of it, and a few big water changes cleared everything. I also added active carbon to the filter.

Move the fish out of that tank immediately.

--Nikolay

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