Bah! More Water Issues

[Kairi]

i suppose i have another bacteria or algae bloom (it's dark out... so can't do my sunlight test) .... but my tank smells like "dead pond water" ... it's gross.

What do I do to finally get rid of this? It happened last week- or the week before... and finally went away.... but this time it smells nasty.

 

[xoedusk]

Give your nitrates a test. How is your lighting and plant level? How much feeding?

These are the only things I can think of that may cause algae/bacteria blooms. I'm sure others can narrow it down.

 

[Kairi]

hrm, 40ish range? lighting.... always varies... and all the plants are fake. feeding hasn't changed... in fact, i've begun feeding them a smidge less b/c i'm running out of food and really low on money til friday. i thought it might have been food too... but lessening the feedings didn't help.

last time, i added a few new decorations.... and it dissipated for a few days, and voila- came right back. grrrrr

 

[Kazuya73]

How thick is your substrate?could be aneorobic spots in the gravel and will cause a rotten egg smell to come from your tank! Maybe?

 

[Kairi]

substrate is about 2" or so thick... would that really happen in the gravel? i thought it only happened to sand?

 

[Fishkrazy1]

Do a MASSIVE water change, say about 60% or more than may help!

 

[InaneCathode]

I think kazuya might be onto something with the anarobic pocket idea. Two inches seems a bit excessive, and you just might be getting dead pockets even with gravel.
Does it kinda smell like a mud flat does, like a drying lake bed?

EDIT: UV sterilizers seem to help out alot of people, perhaps you could try one as well?

 

[Kairi]

what's a uv sterilizer? the substrate was initially because it was a planted tank. pleco ate all my plants though. now i just use it for seeding my other two... well, used it for seeding my other two.

and yea, that is kind of a good description of the smell. it's better today though. i'll do a massive water change tomorrow. i couldn't yesterday b/c i was out of water conditioner

 

[InaneCathode]

That's definitely anarobic pockets then. I wouldnt bother with a water change, as the bateria/smell in the water isnt the problem, its your thick substrate. Try cutting it down to half an inch or an inch of gravel, that should fix your smelly water. It's also worth mentioning the gases produced by anarobic bacteria can easily kill your fish.

A UV sterilizer is a wonderous little unit. You use a powerhead or something similar to push water through the unit. It uses a UV bulb to effectively sterilze your water, outputting perfectly germ/algae spore/parasite larvae free water. And, it doesnt harm your biological filter.

 

[SuperColey1]

Or for £25 you can get a 9V internal one which is smaller than the interal filter pumps you get. ebay have loads. I bought one myself on seeing a green tank go clear in 1 week on a post on this forum

 

[Kazuya73]

If the problem is definitly aneorobic spots in the gravel;then getting some real plants may help too; Provided you have the proper lighting

sorry just read the part about your pleco eating the plants !! Maybe there are some tough leaved plants that your pleco wont eat?I wouldn't know what they are though​

 

[Kairi]

they are expensive here in the US! i don't have the money right now, but our school loans should be coming in soon [let's hope].

i am doing massive water changes on my other two tanks b/c the betta was acting odd- so his tank is clean and he's happy, and the barb tank has a weird green algae on the gravel [yuck]

i might as well do the 75 gallon today too. it wouldn't kill anything to do a decent water change while i pull out substrate. although it'll take me ages. oh well.

wouldn't it be nice if this cleared up the problem til i could get a UV sterilizer? wishful thinking maybe, but a nice thought.

 

[Kazuya73]

Lets hope it works for you.Assuming aneorobic spots are the problem,taking some gravel out and doing a large water change should do it.Don't run out and buy a UV sterilizer yet.See if this works 1st,you may not need one.If you can afford them uv sterilizers are a good thing but not necessarily needed.

 

[Glod]

Anaerobic pockets are only an issue if you disturb the substrate that has the pockets. Generally, left alone they don't vent on their own. I would go with the thorough gravel vac and a few water changes and see how it goes. Chances are if it's a bacterial bloom it will clear by itself in a few days. Try missing a day of feeding the fish, it won't do them any harm for a day or two of no food.

Feeding fish is some kind of black art, everyone has a variation of how it should be done. I'd suggest putting them on half rations for a week and see how it goes, adding more food is easy. If they're a little bit hungry they'll actively seek out alternative food, such as any leftovers in the tank.

*edit: Also, if you think it is anaerobic pockets give the substrate a good stir up before you do your water changes to circulate it a bit.

 

[Kairi]

we did a good gravel vac (and i rearranged everything).... i think it looks a little better, but we'll see in a few hours. i keep meaning to fast the fish for a day, but i feed the fry i've caught, and the adults go nutty. guess it wouldn't kill them to go a day w/o food though.

we'll see what happens. thanks for the advice guys