smelly aquarium

[Rockitman3068]

Had not been taking care of tank like I should( water changes) Started having problem with aptasia in my tank, so I took all rock with aptasia out of my tank. Soaked rock in tap water for several days, sprayed rock with garden hose, drained & put back in my tank. Now my water has like a dirt smell. I'm guessing because I killed everything on my rock, I should have cured the rock before I put back in the tank?

 

[Shane Hoffman]

Correcet. Inside all of those pores was life. Live organisms, micro-organisms, bacteria and everything else. All of which would have died when you removed it from the tank....

 

[ihopss]

Using carbon will help.

 

[Rockitman3068]

do you think this might kill off my fish had a tang die while the rock was out of tank thinking maybe stress?

 

[Jorober]

well if you stirred up the sand when you took the rock out, the tang could have gotten sick from something that's normally in the tank. When you stirred up the sand, you greatly increased the level of bacteria, and disease causing micro-organisms that were free floating in the water column. Could have been the problem. Or, it could have been good old stress. I'd check your ammonia, and nitrite/nitrate levels. You could see a spike if all the dead microorganisms from the rock didn't get rinsed out.

 

[jbird69]

You may have a big ammonia spike followed by a cycle from all the dead stuff in the LR. Keep an eye on it and get ready to do a few water changes.