Cant Eliminate Smell, Please Help !

[mishmash]

Boiling the wood will break down the fibers and it will rot and disintegrate much faster. It's really best to pour boiling water over it, then scrub the nooks and crannies with a toothbrush to try to remove any offending nasties.

Could we see a photo of the tank?

I'm afraid I could only read so much of the initial post before I started to go cross-eyed. If you're going to copy from another forum, at least have the decency to clean up the text.

HTML issue hopefully resolved please tell me if its not fixed. Apologies to those of you who took the trouble to read through that garbage and answer anyway. I just have to take the dog out for a walk before darkness falls and I will reply to your questions/comments. Thanks.

 

[mishmash]

I know it will sound silly but maybe there is far too much stuff in your tank and with the way you set it up the natural cycle life can just not deal with all of this, leaving you with a tank that smells.
No its not that. There is nothing in the tank except a handful of java fern and the piece of wood.

on the other hand you need to tell us a bit more (in simpler term) about your tank. Is it brand new? how big is it? what is the smell like excactly, is it more fishy smell or more like bad standing water smell?
Tank is brand new, cleaned properly, filter and media same. Its 80cmL x 45cmW x 55cmH Its not a fishy smell but hard to describe. More like standing water smell if its anything.

If it was a tank used by someone else before, maybe you got the remaining of a bacteria that you will only see developing once you're going to add some fish.

I know you wont like this but sometime the best thing to do is to desinfect everything and start again.
That should not be necessary because everything is now. The only organic thing in there was the Waterlife Bacterlife cycling liquid, and piece of wood. But thanks for covering that corner too.

it's not pleasant but it worked for me. I couldn't explain what was wrong with my tank and i simply start from scratch again and now i have a beautiful tank with very happy fish...so far.

good luck and dont give up
Hmm, well if i cant fix this smell i will at least have to rip out all the substrate, clean the whole tank down and filter and try again. I can see me binning this wood though, grrr.

With regard to the smell, unless I've missed anything, I can't understand whats causing it.
LOL That makes two of us

All I can say is that it should go away as the tank matures, just keep up 50% water changes in the mean time unless it's something organic rotting, give it a couple more weeks then start to worry . Have you tried putting fresh carbon in your filter? This may temporarily solve the smell while you wait for the actual cause to sort itself .
It has fresh carbon. It was a brand new carbon filter pad.

Maybe try running some Purigen along with the carbon as well. Otherwise, like others have said, check for rotting wood, keep up with the water changes and if you can't find anything give it a couple more weeks to see if it goes away.
What is purigen and what is it designed to bring to the party please ? I may have to take the wood out and shove it in a bucket and see if the smell comes from that. I thought the activated carbon pad ought to take out any odours though ?

I think this is copied from another forum...just remember you're going to get conflicting opinions.
Happy to get conflicting opinions Ianho. You get that on any one forum so it makes no difference posting to two forums, but that has the benefit of capturing a wider audience and therefore the possibility of a faster solution. I prefer to get several opinions and then decide which makes most sense.


anyways, i'd check the wood. Sometimes wood can let off some horrendous smells.
That seems to be an emerging consensus, so i will do that. bloomin annoying though as i tied a whole load of JF to it last night. Grrr. LOL

Do you have real wood in your tank, mishmash?
Yep its real wood. Swamp style bogwood.

Did you boil it before adding it to your tank? Boiling the wood before adding would desinfect it. You could also try scrubbing the wood with a toothbrush, to remove any organic material that could break down in your tank and produce something like a rotten egg smell.
I didnt boil it. In fact, #41#### it, I didnt do anything to it apart from soak it in the tank for a week before doing a 100% water change. The smell was there before the water change and still is there now. I cannot, however, say the smell was there BEFORE putting the wood in, which is a shame because it could have eliminated the wood as a contended.

I definitely dont have the rotten egg smell though. Thank heavens.

 

[Crossfire]

From Seachem's website:

Purigen® is a premium synthetic adsorbent that is unlike any other filtration product. It is not a mixture of ion exchangers or adsorbents, but a unique macro-porous synthetic polymer that removes soluble and insoluble impurities from water at a rate and capacity that exceeds all others by over 500%. Purigen® controls ammonia, nitrites and nitrates by removing nitrogenous organic waste that would otherwise release these harmful compounds. Purigen’s™ impact on trace elements is minimal. It significantly raises redox. It polishes water to unparalleled clarity. Purigen® darkens progressively as it exhausts, and is easily renewed by treating with bleach. Purigen® is designed for both marine and freshwater use.

to put in smaller words, it removes stinky organic particles before they can become stinkier
Also, you said its like a "standing water smell" Maybe you should invest in a powerhead to keep water movement around the whole tank.

 

[mishmash]

Have you tried carbon in your filter? It can get stink out pretty fast. Purigen is a good idea too.

I have an activated carbon filter pad in the external already. I thought it would handle the odour as you have indicated it should do. I have never experienced a smelly tank before, and have had a good 15 different setups in the past, including rift lake cichlid tanks and tropical marine fish only and inverts. Im as puzzled as the next man but can only point the finger at the wood and am cross with myself for omitting to treat it with boiling water and give it a good clean first. Grrr. I could have nuked it in the microwave too. Has anyone tried that method ? And how long do you cook it for, lol.?

 

[Crossfire]

I could have nuked it in the microwave too

I don't recommend boiling your wood, you putting it in the microwave...the results might be....explosive

 

[mishmash]

From Seachem's website:

Purigen® is a premium synthetic adsorbent that is unlike any other filtration product. It is not a mixture of ion exchangers or adsorbents, but a unique macro-porous synthetic polymer that removes soluble and insoluble impurities from water at a rate and capacity that exceeds all others by over 500%. Purigen® controls ammonia, nitrites and nitrates by removing nitrogenous organic waste that would otherwise release these harmful compounds. Purigen's™ impact on trace elements is minimal. It significantly raises redox. It polishes water to unparalleled clarity. Purigen® darkens progressively as it exhausts, and is easily renewed by treating with bleach. Purigen® is designed for both marine and freshwater use.

to put in smaller words, it removes stinky organic particles before they can become stinkier
Also, you said its like a "standing water smell" Maybe you should invest in a powerhead to keep water movement around the whole tank.

Hmm, it sounds wonderful ! lol. So i put it in a filter bag in the external canister ? When it gets dark, this business of treating it with bleach... that sounds worrying, is that safe ? I know what you mean about the powerhead. I have an aquaone aquis 750 advance on there at the moment and its turning the water over about 3x an hour. I realised from the start that this was no good and bought a Tetratec EX1200 instead. This bad boy should have the water circulating nicely on my wee 80x45x55 tank and I hope not to need a powerhead (im a bit minimalist). The spraybar from the Tetratec is in three sections which i can angle differently to create flow over the carpet plants I eventually hope to have, create surface movement to one degree or another, and also create a third directional circulation current.

I could have nuked it in the microwave too

I don't recommend boiling your wood, you putting it in the microwave...the results might be....explosive

I definitley wont boil it, though that is advice I have received and followed in the past without issue. I will probably take the wood out though, soak it in a bucket of clean water and see if i get the same smell out of the aquarium. Hmm, microwave wood explosions. That would go down like a lead balloon, but Im sure I heard someone talk about it on a forum somewhere.

 

[Crossfire]

Hmm, microwave wood explosions. That would go down like a lead balloon, but Im sure I heard someone talk about it on a forum somewhere.

You'd be surprised what explodes in a microwave...trust me

 

[mishmash]

Hmm, microwave wood explosions. That would go down like a lead balloon, but Im sure I heard someone talk about it on a forum somewhere.

You'd be surprised what explodes in a microwave...trust me

I will take your word on that one

 

[minnnt]

I am pretty sure it will be the wood.

Adding a bag of carbon and/or purigen to your filter will work wonders for removing smells etc. Also pouring boiling water over the wood and scrubbing would be better than boiling for the reasons stated.

Purigen removes any organic matter in your tank and will give you crystal clear water.

Click here for more info

What kind of wood is it that you are using?

 

[mishmash]

I am pretty sure it will be the wood.

Adding a bag of carbon and/or purigen to your filter will work wonders for removing smells etc. Also pouring boiling water over the wood and scrubbing would be better than boiling for the reasons stated.

Purigen removes any organic matter in your tank and will give you crystal clear water.

Click here for more info

What kind of wood is it that you are using?

I already have a carbon pad in the filter. Should this not be getting rid of the odour ? Do you/other planters run purigen as standard ?

Thank you for the link about purigen. I will try to get some tomorrow, though who knows how much it will cost me, and this is ending up a very expensive tank ! But if its as good as people seem to think its worth it. Can you enlighten me about the "recharging with bleach" notion ? I would have thought that would be dangerous to the tank ?

I have no idea what the wood is. It came in a big sack at my local LFS, but here is a pic taken from my journal that shows it in the tank before i filled it up.

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[minnnt]

Yes, alot of planted members use it and swear by it. As for recharging, all is explained in the link. Basically soak it in overdosed prime and it will be good to go. Some people just chuck it and buy some more though. (Ian )

Remove the wood to a bucket outside and do some water changes in your tank to see if the smell disappears. You could invest in some redmoor wood (the cream of the crop, but expensive) to replace it with. But tbh, i have all sorts of wood in my tanks, most of it collected and don't notice any odour other than when the wood is out of the water.

You would probably be better using a bag og carbon rather than a carbon impregnated sponge to remove odours. But try removing the wood first.

And yes, this hobby can be very expensive indeed, wait until you contract MTS... Then you will no longer have any money for anything else!

 

[Crossfire]

And yes, this hobby can be very expensive indeed, wait until you contract MTS... Then you will no longer have any money for anything else!

MTS? Sound infectious

 

[minnnt]

Multi Tank Syndrome.

 

[Crossfire]

Multi Tank Syndrome.

OMG that is infectious

 

[minnnt]

You know this!