smelly live rock?

[dbyrd]

first of all i would like to say thanks to everyone at RC for all of your help

i did a rather large water change in a struggle against high nitrates{somewhere between 40 and 80}i took out about half the water in a 46 gal tank and that left the water pretty shallow around the top of the rocks. i started to smell the tank a little and when i stuck my head into the tank the odor was nasty smelling. the water i took out during the water change did not smell at all so i know the water its self wasn't causing the smell. i took a small chunk of rock out and smelled it and it was awful almost like my skimmer smells. the rock looks good with coralline growing on it and all of the inhabitants of the tank seem to be doing well. what should i do? any help will be much appreciated.

and again thanks RC

 

[XSiVE]

that's odd.. usually stinky means something is dieing or decomposing..

how long have you had the rock in the tank?

 

[dbyrd]

the rock has been in the tank about a year but i never recall actually smelling the rock in the past even when i bought them.

 

[UntamedBreez]

have your water chems been way off?

sounds like you killed your live rock

 

[mwwhite]

Not necessarily a problem. Have you ever been around the water at low tide? It can be a little gamey. Perfectly normal, too.

 

[HPD Turbo]

Does LR need light?

 

[EBOLII]

Do you use carbon? This can help with wayward smells? Just a thought

 

[gummi]

LR needs some light to make sure the the photosynthesis process is in order.

If it smells, test your water quality. Also, remove any sponges or filter floss that may be collecting waste.

Throw in a bag of active carbon as well.

Make sure you're not overfeeding.

My water was smelling musty so I removed the two sponges I have in my sump (that had fish food and waste on them) and the smell was drastically reduced. I tend to be a heavy feeder.

Also, clear your skimmer out.

 

[dcombs44]

Smelly rock usually means that it's not fully cured aka something on it is dead. I would also look into your water parameters to make sure that you haven't killed off something on the rock. In the meantime, use some carbon to soak up the smell and take some of the other steps mentioned in this thread.

 

[HPD Turbo]

So the rock that is in the sump needs light?????

 

[AquaReeferMan]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10277502#post10277502 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by HPD Turbo
So the rock that is in the sump needs light?????

No. bacteria does not need light. You dont need any cool algae growing on the rock in your sump.

 

[HPD Turbo]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10277552#post10277552 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by AquaReeferMan
No. bacteria does not need light. You dont need any cool algae growing on the rock in your sump.

Thanks, that`s what I thought.
Is that an Achilles in your avatar, do you have more pics?

 

[mildew]

He said the rock had been in the tank for about a year, so I'm going with the "low tide" answer. When I pull the macro algae from my tank, it always smells like low tide. Low tide smell might be considered bad by those who didn't grow up near an ocean. Or, ever been to the Great Salt Lake in Utah. It really smells like a bad case of low tide. As for a skimmer smell being bad, heck, I kind of like it, especially in winter when a good whiff of skimmer crud reminds of the smell of warming earth in spring. You'd have to be a gardener to appreciate that one.