Rotten smell on NSW

[elviraveloz]

First time I let NSW stand on 45 gallon container for 1.5 weeks, today I opened lid and the water has a rotten smell. Should I discard water? Container sitting on covered patio.

 

[mrx66699]

No you can bring NSW right back ....just kill everything off in it and then aerate for 24hrs ....billsreef could tell you exactly what to do ...dont quote me but I think I believe he would just use capfull of bleach or so (pm him for the exact amount) then aerate....

 

[elviraveloz]

Thanks.

 

[zoliyis]

I m sure the bleach would work. But if you make any mistake, everything will have to go in the trash. Not worth the risk for $25 of salt water in my opinion.

 

[billsreef]

You want to use NSW right away or store it sealed up in the dark for 6 weeks. Once you seal it up, the plankton (protists, copepods, etc) start dieing, so you need to let it sit long enough for that die off to occur and the resulting bacterial blooms to deal with that die off and leave you with nice clean NSW, hence the 6 weeks in the dark. So I'd just seal it back up and let it sit a few more weeks

With fresh collected SW, if your wanting to use it right away and worried about sterilizing, you can add a bit of bleach to kill things off, dechlorinate and use. However, I've always done alright just using fresh it with some coarse filtration, if any.

BTW, this is stuff I learned from reading Martin Moe's books back in the day

 

[elviraveloz]

Well I didn't discard the water but went to LFS and bought some for a couple of days. I will try what billreef suggested. I know a lot of reefer keep NSW in close containers for more than 2 weeks. What went wrong besides what billreef mentioned?

 

[marke]

I don't know what went wrong, but I keep nsw in containers for a month without any smell or other issues? Hence if it smelled on me that one in a hundred times I would discard as it cheap. Or bleach and unbleach ? Maybe even clean the container time?

 

[elviraveloz]

Marke do you keep container outside or under AC. I always clean container with hose and let it dry before I buy water. Do you circulate the water all the time? I'm going to discard water because I think it's cheaper to discard than running with other problems later on, but I'm trying to find out what went wrong.

 

[marke]

Marke do you keep container outside or under AC. I always clean container with hose and let it dry before I buy water. Do you circulate the water all the time? I'm going to discard water because I think it's cheaper to discard than running with other problems later on, but I'm trying to find out what went wrong.

I keep 200 gallons outside in the shade with no circulation and use it one month latter with no concern or smell or change in chemistry I also keep 60 gal in a drum in the garage without circulation and no issues? Been doing this for a while without ever getting smell. Maybe an increase in salinity due to evaporation. I do get some algae like growth on the bottom of the outside container without issues. I clean that a couple times a year. Where did you get your water?

 

[mrx66699]

I keep 1500 gal outside and 300 in garage .....outside I have a small mag 3 on it that runs 24 7 and I use it way past the 1st month ....inside no cir pump but it gets used up pretty quick never more than two weeks

 

[elviraveloz]

I get my NSW from Coral Kingdom on Taft Street. Never had any issues before because water was use within a week. This time I bought 50 gallon so it's being sitting for a 1.5 weeks. It's a dark gray color container with lid on a covered patio. Patio is surrounded by a lot of trees no sun at all. I'm going to try again with small sump inside running to see what happen.

 

[mrx66699]

You mean a small pump ....just a Maxijet should work fine

 

[elviraveloz]

Thanks.