Bleh

[Amunet]

Little backstory before I get to it....

Before I got Caine, his 3 gallon tank was being used as our Q/H tank.

I know.. he's a cutey.. lol

I cleaned it out VERY well. Rinsed the gravel, scrubbed the tank etc etc and then let the tank run for a while.
But for the longest time.. I've been noticing a very strong odor coming from this tank and I have no idea what is causing it.
I had first thought it was the heater's bottom resting on the gravel. Thought it was heating the gravel up causing it to let out this certain smell, but now.. I'm not so sure b/c I've made sure the heater has been off the gravel for hmm.. 2 weeks? now and the smell is still there.
I've done one full water change out of it. I've done almost full water changes out of it.. and I'm doing water changes every other day out of it, but the smell always comes back.

It's sorta hard to explain what it smells like. Maybe like an old fart mixed with a match burning. It gets so bad that it fills the whole room with the smell. I swear no one else notices it except for me. Bf can only smell it when he sticks his nose right over the tank.
I think the next time we go to the petstore (hopefully Weds)... I'm gonna get some new gravel. But I'm not sure if it is the gravel that's causing this funky smell. Wouldn't want to get new stuff and then have the smell come back.. ya know?
It never smelled this way when we were using the tank as the Q/H. Caine acts normal and has even made himself a few bubblenests so he doesn't seem to mind whatever is going on.

 

[Zafirah]

Yeh, it could be gravel. That's really weird. Hope it clears up soon!

 

[Phaedra]

Is it possible that it could be the bottom part of the heater? I know that with mine, there is a little rubber bit. If it got heated too much from being in contact with the gravel, I wonder if that could have melted and now is in too close contact with the heater element and continually releasing that yucky gassy sort of smell that rubber can get. Just a guess on my part, mind you. Now if you'll pardon me, I have to readjust my own heater, which is currently sitting on the gravel...

 

[Dan-25]

I had the same problem with my gold gravel - is it like a sweet kind of smell i completely took all my gravel out and had it bare bottom for a whi;e and everything seemed fine unitl i ntroduved the gravel back in and it went back to smelling again.

dont know why because i rinsed and cleaned it several times before putting it back in my tank try it without the gravel

 

[Amunet]

The heater doesn't have any soft plastic stuff on the bottom of it. It's just glass at the bottom.
The smell is SOOOO not sweet.
It's just an icky smell... farty... icky sorta smell that just isn't pleasant at all.
I'm doing a water change tomorrow.. I'm gonna start taking out some of the gravel (specially the stuff under the heater) and see how things smell after. Probably the same though...will have to clean everything off so none of it brings the smell back into the tank if/when I get new gravel.

 

[dmarie04]

What dechlorinator do you use? That was the first thing I thought of when I read your post. I use Amquel and it stinks like old farts!! I heard that Prime is kinda stinky, too.

 

[Phaedra]

Ooh yes! I just noticed that the other day, my Prime is really stinky and definitely could be compared to old farts.

 

[scorphonic]

Maybe the poor fish has an overactive digestive system...

Just kidding.

Could it possibly be something that the plants are giving off?

 

[dthoffsett]

You're most likely smelling sulfer. It could be coming from they dechlorinator you're using (the aforementioned Prime), or from the substrate. If it's the substrate, it could be that you have too much in, and it isn't getting stirred or vacuumed enough causing little pockets of gas, it's most commonly seen in sand, but I imagine can happen in fine gravel as well. My suggestions would be to change out the gravel, and put only a very thin layer of new gravel in to see if that makes a difference.

 

[Amunet]

I use Prime, but trust me.. it isn't what's causing the smell.
The smell started occuring before I started using Prime.

I'll be sure to keep the gravel to a minimum when we get more if that is the problem.