What's Causing The Smell?

[chesterjohn]

I recently bought some cardinal tetras and they were very thin, had white blotches and appeared to have fin rot on a couple of them.

I'm not sure it was finrot as the ones that looked to have damaged fins were dead a few hours after noticing it, and the fin was completely gone by the time I saw the dead fishes.

I treated the water with an anti fungal and bacterial medicine and a couple of days later there was a strange smell coming from the tank.

I've done a 15% water change last night and cleaned the rim of the tank and anything that looked dirty, but have no idea what was/is causing the smell.

The medication doesn't have a smell at all, so doubt it's that unless it has some reaction with the water...

All other fish are feeding and look ok although rams had very little colour last night

 

[Ludwig Venter]

Are you perhaps feeding them hikari brand of foods.......??

 

[chesterjohn]

Are you perhaps feeding them hikari brand of foods.......??

I don't know that brand, I feed them Kingfisher brand foods.

Have also got some tubifex that is from another brand, but that's not been in for a while

 

[paulbr1]

Hi, how old is the tank/current setup, it could be new tank syndrome! Usually goes away after a month or so (if you are lucky)

What does it smell like.

Paul

 

[chesterjohn]

Hi, how old is the tank/current setup, it could be new tank syndrome! Usually goes away after a month or so (if you are lucky)

What does it smell like.

Paul

Tank is a year old and only recent changes have been 6 new cardinals of which 3 died and 2 checkerboard cichlids. Plus the medication. Something in that must have done it as it's never smelt like this before. Ammonia and nitrites were 0 when it started smelling, I'll check again now

 

[chesterjohn]

Hard to tell how much ammonia is reading. It doesn't look green at all, but it's not as bright yellow as usual, but this may be due to the light in here (I normally test at night).

Going to do another water change and hopefully it'll be ok as I go away for a few days tomorrow

 

[chesterjohn]

Hard to tell how much ammonia is reading. It doesn't look green at all, but it's not as bright yellow as usual, but this may be due to the light in here (I normally test at night).

Going to do another water change and hopefully it'll be ok as I go away for a few days tomorrow

Whilst doing the water change, I've taken everything out and given it a sniff test. It seems to be the lighting unit where the smell is coming from. The tank water smells as usual, and the tubes and unit have an almost urine like smell. I've given them a clean but no idea what is the cause. Any ideas?

 

[Danbarb]

Urine smell? Ammonia is quite high in urine, and that could be the smell?

Another odd smell I get is from a product called Amquel Plus. It's hard to say exactly what it is! I'd check the wiring, and that the light fitting caps are screwed on tight though, just to be on the safe side.

Some medications can smell, and if this evaporated onto a hot light I suppose it could make a dodgy smell?

I am not sure, can ammonia in the water evaporate, or condense onto things? - that's a bit beyond my scope of knowledge!