Tank smells like skimmer

[magdelan]

My pregnant wife and her super sonic smell brought this to my attention this morning. The water in the display tank stinks! It usually smells like the ocean, not lake Ontario. Any ideas?

 

[Tonynlo]

Are you running any carbon? Ammonia levels?

 

[magdelan]

Running carbon, poly pad, po4 remover, 150g system with 50g weekly water changes.

 

[pilotguy]

I've been battling that as well. My wife has a super nose. I do regular water changes but I can't seem to figure it out.

 

[Tonynlo]

I'm assuming it's a sulfur smell/Rotten eggs? Do you syphon your sand bed at all (that is assuming that you use some form of substrate)? From my experience, the smell is caused by Hydrogen Sulfide pockets forming in your sand bed near dead spots (between rocks etc.). If you were cleaning your tank, or moving rock around and disturbed one of these "pockets", it could give off the odor. HTH

 

[naprestsleep]

I notice it from time to time, never figured ti out. Thought I had that issue yesterday, instead found out the doggie has an accident in the bedroom while we were at work. That stunk a lot more.

 

[Capt_Cully]

My wife is pregnant too, and without a tank currently, she focuses the super olfaction my way. Not much of a challenge for anyone. That said, any dead snails, fish, soft corals, or macroalgae?

Just a few spots to check.

 

[reefman5511]

Might also check above the water line. Sometimes there's all sorts of nasty stuff growing under the top rim.

 

[magdelan]

All sorts of helpful things to look into. Thanks!

Cully, another goal on the empty net? Congrats! You going for a hat-trick or game over?

 

[Capt_Cully]

2 n out! Girl's just over a year, The Boy due in May. I'm becoming quite the cliche.

 

[magdelan]

problem solved.

problem solved.

I was prepared to attribute the smell to sulphur pockets in the sand bed until tonight. I lifted the screen up off of my tank and found my flame hawkfish laying dead on the eggcrate covering my overflow box. Can't say I'm very happy about it however I have been told that he is the reason why a cleaner shrimp had disappeared that I had added to the tank some time ago. Does this sound right?

 

[sg1838]

Yep, that'll do it! At one time we had a Leopard Gecko that was in my son's room. He had died and was left for at most 24 hours, and when I had walked into my son's room I couldn't believe how bad it smelled. That's when I found out that Gordon was no longer with us. :-(

I do miss him, but I don't miss running around all over town trying to find crickets and mealworms. My reef aquarium took his place...