Cant Eliminate Smell, Please Help !

[Rummynose]

I haven't heard about using cat litter as substrate before so I googled it. I'm wondering if you have the right kind of cat litter, so I'm attaching the site here:
http/forum.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/showthread.php?t=74443

Your tank/stand combo is beautiful by the way, and I truly hope you will figure out what the cause of the smell is! Once your tank is up and running odourless with the wood, plants and the fish it's going to look and be awesome!

 

[mishmash]

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 )

Well I will deffo look into it because crystal clear water is something I am quite particular about

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.


I missed out on a stunning piece of redmoor because I thought about buying it too long! It was a decent chunk with lots of rooty bits sticking up and went for a song on Ebay a few days ago. Grrr. Pity I am so adamant about wanting a South American set up predominantly for my Apistos (well the ones I hope to get) because Im really liking some of the rock Iwagumi setups Im seeing. Having said that I watched a 30 minute video from The Green Machine on a 360 degree scape with wood AND rock and it looked stunning.
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.

I am happy to take your word on that but am going to ask WHY that is the case ? Also, am I right in thinking I have seen activated carbon mixed with purigen somewhere on a LFS shelf ?

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!

LOL

I haven't heard about using cat litter as substrate before so I googled it. I'm wondering if you have the right kind of cat litter, so I'm attaching the site here:
http/forum.practic...ead.php?t=74443

Your tank/stand combo is beautiful by the way, and I truly hope you will figure out what the cause of the smell is! Once your tank is up and running odourless with the wood, plants and the fish it's going to look and be awesome!

Thanks Rummynose, it is lovely and I would not really want to give up on it. I WILL work this out even if it does mean stripping it all down and starting again, but I hope it wont require anything that drastic. Cheers for your concern about the cat litter. I definitely have the right one though. I read the posts both here and elsewhere on cat litter so am 100% confident I bought the right one.

 

[minnnt]

I believe the product you have seen is Fluval Zeo-lite? (sp?) Carbon and ammonia remover? I had some a while ago, worked well. Ian uses Purigen and is probably the member who posts pics of his tank the most so have a look over his last few threads to see for yourself the crystal clear water in action!

 

[mishmash]

I believe the product you have seen is Fluval Zeo-lite? (sp?) Carbon and ammonia remover? I had some a while ago, worked well. Ian uses Purigen and is probably the member who posts pics of his tank the most so have a look over his last few threads to see for yourself the crystal clear water in action!

Purigen are about to make another £20 by the sounds of it. If its as good as you say it is, you get a free plant off me when my tank is "producing" hehe.

Meantime I have a few bunches of java fern someone sent me. is it ok to just tie them down to a glass weight in the aquarium while im sorting out the wood problem ?

 

[minnnt]

Yep.

 

[mishmash]

Yep.

Sweet as

 

[mishmash]

Right, I took the wood out and smelled it and it reeks of the same pong I had detected in the tank. I have taken it out and am soaking it in a bucket to see if its actually the wood that smells or whether it had absorbed the smell from the tank. I will do a big water change in the tank and see if it gets rid of the smell.
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[font="'Trebuchet MS"]Im still going to try some of this purigen though, cos I definitely like the sound of crystal clear water. Thanks for all your suggestions, I will update this tomorrow.[/font]

 

[minnnt]

Ensure it goes near the top of your filter.

 

[mishmash]

Ensure it goes near the top of your filter.

OK, so last thing before final filter wool pad ? ?

 

[Rummynose]

Since you have the wood already out maybe you could scald it with some boiling water and give it a scrub down with a brush?

 

[SuperColey1]

Confusing thread. lol. First post shows up OK on mine although it is very spaced out. Maybe because I use Opera but thats by the by.

Purigen will do as stated earlier. However it will not remove ammonia, nitrite or nitrate contrary to many people's beliefs (including me in the past.) I have done a fair bit of reading on Purigen and other things similar over the past few months or so and it removes organic wastes before they turn into ammonia. So it will more than likely remove the wastes from your wood before it turns into ammonia if that is indeed the problem. Seachem theirselves state this.

Think of it more as a filter wool that 'skims' the wastes BEFORE they can turn into ammonia/nitrite/nitrate. Therefore any fish pee or added ferts should be fine.

I personally no longer use Purigen because I changed my fertiliser to one that contains urea (which eventually turns into ammonia) and therefore do not want it 'adsorbed'. If your fert is based around KNO3 (Potassium Nitrate such as Seachems or EI etc or ammonium nitrate such as TPN+ then you should be fine using it.

On the cat litter front I have never heard (or maybe not remember hearing) of it being used on top. In fact I can't understand why you have added it on top of the nutrient rich substrate. If the nutrient rich substrate has high CEC then you may as well have put gravel/sand straight on top. If it isn't high in CEC then I would have foregone it and used the cat litter under gravel/sand. Either way I would've put a 'barrier' layer on top because after a while Cat litter has a habit of becoming mush and that then clouds the water easily. Even more so with substrate fiddlers like Corys, Plecs, Shrimp, Rams (or planted peeps that move plants around

Sorry can't help you with the smell, never noticed any smell with any wood I have had. Just was answering a few of those questions.

Andy

 

[mishmash]

Since you have the wood already out maybe you could scald it with some boiling water and give it a scrub down with a brush?

Hey Rummynose. To be perfectly honest, this was not an expensive piece of wood and it has caused me so much grief over the last week with worrying about the smell that all I want to confirm is that it was the cause. Then it may be bogwood heaven for this bit of wood. The satisfaction of burning the stuff will make up for the trouble its caused, LOL. Your suggestion is, of course, far more sensible and I may resolve to do that and then either keep it or sell it on, but the way I feel about it right now, its firewood !!

 

[mishmash]

Confusing thread. lol. First post shows up OK on mine although it is very spaced out. Maybe because I use Opera but thats by the by.

LOL, a bizarre post even if I say so myself. The little ruccus between me and This Old Spouse is now amicably resolved by the way And you can read the OP because having realised what had happened I went back and edited out all the offending HTML. So much for HTML working regardless...

Purigen will do as stated earlier. However it will not remove ammonia, nitrite or nitrate contrary to many people's beliefs (including me in the past.) I have done a fair bit of reading on Purigen and other things similar over the past few months or so and it removes organic wastes before they turn into ammonia. So it will more than likely remove the wastes from your wood before it turns into ammonia if that is indeed the problem. Seachem theirselves state this.


OK, does this mean it will "starve" the bio filter bacteria of food thus lengthening the time it will take to mature ?

Think of it more as a filter wool that 'skims' the wastes BEFORE they can turn into ammonia/nitrite/nitrate. Therefore any fish pee or added ferts should be fine.

I personally no longer use Purigen because I changed my fertiliser to one that contains urea (which eventually turns into ammonia) and therefore do not want it 'adsorbed'. If your fert is based around KNO3 (Potassium Nitrate such as Seachems or EI etc or ammonium nitrate such as TPN+ then you should be fine using it.

On the cat litter front I have never heard (or maybe not remember hearing) of it being used on top. In fact I can't understand why you have added it on top of the nutrient rich substrate. If the nutrient rich substrate has high CEC then you may as well have put gravel/sand straight on top. If it isn't high in CEC then I would have foregone it and used the cat litter under gravel/sand. Either way I would've put a 'barrier' layer on top because after a while Cat litter has a habit of becoming mush and that then clouds the water easily.

There is cat litter and then there is CAT LITTER. This one is like premolar baked clay, does not break down to mush (several people on here have used this over an extended period with great success as their top substrate, various threads attest... I think there is a link somewhere on this thread too if you wanted to have a read. If you have heard of Akadama, its basically the same as that... this link is interesting on that respect AKADAMA SUBSTRATE. JBL aquabasis + needs to be on the bottom. I do not believe it has a high CEC, hence having the cat litter on top which does have high CEC and the advantage of being a nice size and shape to be an attractive topping and being cory friendly)
Even more so with substrate fiddlers like Corys, Plecs, Shrimp, Rams (or planted peeps that move plants around

Sorry can't help you with the smell, never noticed any smell with any wood I have had. Just was answering a few of those questions.

Comments much appreciated. I have an interesting piece of wood for you to experience something quite new here then. A tenner and its yours.... LOL

Andy

 

[SuperColey1]

OK, does this mean it will "starve" the bio filter bacteria of food thus lengthening the time it will take to mature ?

Depends which way you look at it. The filter bacteria only needs to mature to the point that it can handle what it needs to. With plants in the tank they take some (or in a heavily planted tank most) of that job away because they feed off the ammonia/nitrite/nitrate themselves thus less to get to the filter bacteria.

Add to this that the purigen will only be removing stuff that is not yet at the stage filter bacteria would use then no. The Purigen will remove waste at the 'pre ammonia' stage. It won't touch the fish waste which is in the form of ammonia for most of our fish. Most fish we keep excrete ammonia and not urea so as Purigen does not touch ammonia then it will still be going to the filter bacteria.

Its a bit like having 2 hoovers rather than one to do the same amount of work. Without the purigen the bacteria colony grows to a size to deal with the ammonia produced directly as waste and also that develops from other wastes. Without Purigen the bacteria doesn't grow as large as it does not need to. Same in any tank really. Add 1 fish and the bacteria colony will not grow as large as if you have 20 fish. It doesn't need to. So no probs adding the Purigen it will do it's job and by removing the crud that would eventually turn into ammonia it 'polishes' the water.

TBH the only reason I ever used Purigen was to get the 'gin clear' water. BEING heavily planted I don't really worry ever about anything else. Used to run the filter empty (except for Purigen) for a fair while just for the circulation


I assume that's one of James' threads (too lazy to click lol. If the Manado has low CEC and you are happy with the kitty litter as a top layer then I would've ditched the Manado and put pure kitty litter in. These nutrient rich substrates with low CEC are a waste of money IMO. Better to have something inert that has high CEC and therefore will soak up nutrient thus becoming nutrient rich. All a marketing thing if you ask me.

You can keep the wood I'm not doing wood these days. Gone off it long before reading about smelly stuff, he, he.

 

[mishmash]

@supercoley.... its aquabasis+ (which is a soil like stuff) not manado (which i believe can be used as a top level substrate). I bought it and stuck it in before I knew about CEC or anything like that. TBH I am thinking of binning it , along with the cat litter, and just using something that has high CHC. What can you recommend, that wont cost the earth ?