steve24cro Posted February 16, 2004 Share Posted February 16, 2004 last time i changed my water in my 3 ft tank i found my water smelt like a eggy type really strong smell, like the water was rotten or something. I change the water once a week (about 60% of water) which should be more than enough. I do have a heavily planted tank, and it has 10 community tropicals. HAs anyone experienced this aweful smell? i heard it could be dead matter from plants that has mixed deeper into gravel?? Ps. i thoroughly gravel vac the bottom on every water change Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OziOscar Posted February 16, 2004 Share Posted February 16, 2004 Hello! A few questions: * What kind of filtration do you have (cannister, internal power, under-gravel)? * How often do you clean the filtration material (if any) in your filter? * What are the water parameters (pH, nitrite, nitrate)? * Do you have any rotting material in the tank (plants, etc)? * How deep is your substrate? * How long has the tank been running? Hear from you soon. Cheers - OziOscar. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
novafishy Posted February 16, 2004 Share Posted February 16, 2004 I do have a heavily planted tank, and it has 10 community tropicals. HAs anyone experienced this aweful smell? i heard it could be dead matter from plants that has mixed deeper into gravel?? Ps. i thoroughly gravel vac the bottom on every water change how do u do a gravel vac when your tank is heavily planted? wouldnt all the plants just get uprooted? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fiona Posted February 16, 2004 Share Posted February 16, 2004 The rotten egg smell would be hydrogen sulfide and comes from having anaerobic conditions somewhere, most likely in the substrate under your plants where the plant matter has built up and the gravel doesn't get water movement, oxygen or anything like that. It's probably going to have a greyish black slimy look to it in places. Do you have that anywhere? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steve24cro Posted February 17, 2004 Author Share Posted February 17, 2004 OK here are answers to your questions........ ive got cannister filter, eheim 2213 i clean out every month Gravel is 3 inch deep all over I do gravel vac even between plants and some get up rooted but i push them back in, its only thing i can do to clean between them MY plants tend to rot, however i try remove as much as i can plus vacuuming Water parameters.... i dont measure Ph, nitrate and nitrite and ammonia levels are zero tank has been running exactly 1 year Got 15 fish (tropicals) all healthy and fine, although have had 5 die and replace in the year. The gravel is looking slightly black, but only underneath layers, top is fine. Thanx for any help you can come up with....i also heard i should clean whole tank out with gravel Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
onlyme Posted February 17, 2004 Share Posted February 17, 2004 Try excluding light from area where the gravel is exposed at the tank sides. Use masking tape or similar. There is a really good book called "the planted aquarium" which would give you a good reference for these sort of problems. Craig. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Callatya Posted February 17, 2004 Share Posted February 17, 2004 Wouldnt anaerobic bacteria be USED to the dark?? I would remove a good deal of that substrate, 3" is WAY too deep without any type of water movement. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OziOscar Posted February 17, 2004 Share Posted February 17, 2004 I agree with Cal about the depth... your substrate has gone anaerobic and somehow the lower layers have been disturbed, hence the rotten egg stench. 3" is a bit much - you have made a sort of deep-gravel-bed where no water gets to the bottom layers. Best way out of this one is to do a tear down, take out the 'good' substrate and get the stinky stuff out of there, clean out the tank as much as possible and you should be OK. If you make the gravel either 1" all around or 2" at the back and 1" at the front then you're in good hands and your plants will be better able to root and aid in biological filtration. Check out the the thread 'substrate' in the underwater gardens forum - I learned a lot there about how to make a good substrate combo that will ensure great plants. Your filtration is a nice unit. When you clean that, how do you do it? Also, you should be seeing some nitrates. A zero reading seems unusual. How often do you remove the rotting plant life? And lastly, did you establish the cause of death of those 5? Lots of luck. Cheers - OziOscar. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest big bad burundi Posted February 17, 2004 Share Posted February 17, 2004 A 2213 has very little flow when stacked well with substrate,but cleaning every month is a little over the top for any cannister filter in my mind.I do mine quarterly but i dont let my intake suck in solid waste either.Try adding some kind of prefilter on the intake of the cannister. If you have any rocks id suggest removing them whilst doing gravel cleaning also. Ps: how is your cannister stacked with what kind of substrates. Cheers Darryl Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sarah Posted February 17, 2004 Share Posted February 17, 2004 i lost all my bristlenose fry over a period of a few days last week, i had sand as substrate and i think anaerobic bacteria was released , the only one to survive was the adult male bristlenose, the water smelt of rotten eggs , i had been doing water changes every 2 days but i must have disturbed the sand and that released the gas. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cannula Posted February 18, 2004 Share Posted February 18, 2004 Just wondering if you have any wood, wood if not hardwood can tend to smell also. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Callatya Posted February 18, 2004 Share Posted February 18, 2004 Oh, and also, consider adding Malasian Burrowing Snails. They wiggle around in the substrate and keep it airated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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