Frito/Old Socks smell from sump on new tank

[HenHouse]

Hello all. Glad to finally be a part of this forum. I have wanted a saltwater tank for years and have finally made the plug (so excited). I have a 60 gallon cube with Trigger cube sump. I have live sand with dry reef saver rock. I had the tank with sand, rock, and water running with power heads for about a week and visited my LFS to talk about cycling it correctly.

So I bought some cycling bacteria (like Bio-spira) and put 1 shrimp, cut into 2 pieces on Monday (Labor day). I will be testing the water on lunch today, but the small coming from the sump when I open it is quite ripe to say the least. Smells like old socks or fritos, can't tell. I have the skimmer running and it is pulling out some crude but even in cleaning it out, it is still bad.

Should I take the shrimp out? Change the filter Sock? What would be the best course of action to help alleviate the smell? From what I read, the tank/sump normally won't smell like this.

Any help would be amazing!

 

[Mark9]

Take the shrimp out if it's smelling, the smell will go away, eventually.
You need to test for ammonia.
The proper way to use biospira is to dump it in then add some ammonia.
I used Dr. Tims, 1 drop/gallon.

 

[HenHouse]

Thank you so much for the advice. The shrimp is coming out on lunch and I am going to test my ammonia and post the results to see if I need to add any more ammonia.

 

[Mark9]

People shoot for 2ppm

 

[CStrickland]

My tank smelled like cat pee during the cycle, it should go away as your biofilter populates to where it can convert the smelly stuff into not smelly. It's probably just strong in your sump cause it's closed up most of the time so it's concentrated.

If it's that ripe you probably have plenty of ammonia to get your cycle going, but your test will tell you for sure.

 

[HenHouse]

It is nice to know mine isn't the only one.

So I went home on lunch and took the 2 pieces of shrimp out. They smelled bad to put it lightly. I tested Ammonia, Nitrites, Nitrates;

Results:
Ammonia: 0
Nitrites: .1 maybe was tough to tell
Nitrates: approx 4

I had the shrimp in for almost 3 days. The tank has have the live sand and dry rock with water for approx 2 weeks with powerheads on. I wouldn't think it has cycled, but what do I make of the readings.

 

[CStrickland]

could be the live sand was strong enough.
you can buy pure ammonia that's used for cleaning and add enough to get the tank water up to 2 ppm, and then if it is all gone in 24 hours they say you are ready to start (slowly) adding animals. if it takes longer you just let them eat on the leftovers for a while, then try again.

I didn't do it that way, I just added food steady and waited a while after ammonia cleared. but if I was going to start a tank today I'd prolly double check like that.

 

[HenHouse]

Thank you for the advice. I am not going to put anything in for a week or so and will start with one clown. I did use the Ocean Direct Live Caribsea sand, about 80lbs. I really like it because is has all the shells and stuff in it.

Where do I want the Nitrates to be? As low as possible? I read somewhere 20ppm is about the norm. Do Nitrates have to be at this level or can they be lower or even 0?

 

[CStrickland]

Do you have the clown in qt yet?

You don't need to word about nitrates, they'll bounce around in the beginning so trying to fix it usually makes it worse. Once you get some critters their poop will make it rise, but water changes will dilute it. I don't see any issues keeping mine below 10, but some aim lower.
Here's a good article http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2003/8/chemistry

 

[jd371]

I had the same problem, the smell lofting into the den while watching TV was unbearable. I took out the shrimp and started dosing with pure ammonia.

 

[HenHouse]

I don't have a clown in qt yet. I don't have a qt tank. Can I use the refugium part of the sump? If its the only fish do I have to qt?