Smell coming out from tank

[Eightfold]

Guys,

My tank is a ~2months 30L tank.

Have around 30+ Shrimps livestocks, it starts to give out a faint sulphur(kinda like Seachem Prime) smell, is it normal?

[Jungle-mania]

No it is not, do a water change and add carbon to your filter.

[imke]

I would clear the gravel, too.

[Shadow]

sound like anaerobic build up in your substrate. What substrate did you use.

[Eightfold]

I use Master Soil.

What is this anaerobic build up? Dangerous to my livestocks?

Clear gravel? Will do some water change tomorrow, are carbon also known as charcoal?

Mine is barely 2month tank, why did it happen?

Thanks in advance

[Shadow]

not good because some bacteria break down sulfites in nonorganic matter into H2S (hydrogen sulphide). It is toxic

[stormhawk]

If it smells like rotten eggs, you got a problem on your hands. If it smells like the swimming pool smell, it's just chlorine dissipating into the air.

[Eightfold]

faint smell but sure doesnt smell nice, got to put nose next to it to smell it. besides water change, nth else to do? i dun have another tank to house the livestock

[globalcookie]

Becareful not to stir the base. Do some water change and add in active carbon. Monitor the tank.

[Eightfold]

thanks. will get the carbon media in my canister and see how it goes

[vinz]

You need to rejuvenate your substrate. You should not leave it as it is.

One way is to plant some robust rooting plants. You can try Sagittaria subulata. I don't see that in the shops at all these days, so you may want to look/ask in the marketplace. I think I saw someone selling theirs a few days/weeks ago.

Don't plant too many as the the planting will release the toxins into the water. I suggest you plant just 2 or 3 plants in a corner and then do a water change straight away. Trim the roots to about an inch long. Then grab the end of the roots with a tweezer and plunge the tweezer into the substrate, release and pull out the tweeze. Minimise disturbing the substrate.

This is a slow process. The plants will slowly (weeks and months) grow and spread across the substrate. The roots will oxygenate the substrate and make it healthy again.

[Eightfold]

thanks for all inputs. i'll try the carbon and frequent water change first..

But, what causes this? It's a very fresh tank..

Will the carbon take out Beneficial Bacteria and Mineral Plus dosing too?

[stormhawk]

Carbon does not kill the bacteria in the filter, but I have no idea if it will absorb the minerals from your shrimp product. It is generally not advisable to use the carbon for longer than a week or two. Keep it in a filter bag so you can remove it easily later on.

[Fuzzy]

You might want to seriously consider tearing down the tank and restarting. What sort of filtration are you using for this tank by the way?

This is not a problem that is liable to go away after time just by running carbon, in fact its fairly likely that unless you increase the flow rate and/or filtration to this tank that it will get worse over time.

[Eightfold]

just changed from hof to eden a week ago. restart tank change substrate? i dun have another mature tank to house

[vinz]

thanks for all inputs. i'll try the carbon and frequent water change first..

But, what causes this? It's a very fresh tank..

Will the carbon take out Beneficial Bacteria and Mineral Plus dosing too?

Activate carbon is for chemical filtration. It absorbs chemicals out of the water. It will not kill your filter bacteria.

Ok... here's what I understand of anaerobic substrate. Anyone correct me if I'm wrong
- The smelly gas is HS2 H2S or Hydrogen Sulphide. Smells like rotten eggs.
- HS2 H2S is produced by certain bacteria that lives in anaerobic (no-oxygen) substrates.
- That bacteria produce the gas as they decompose organic materials in the substrate.

Do you have any plants that is rooting into the soil? If not, then the soil is not getting any oxygen from plant roots. If Magic Soil has organic materials in it and they are being decomposed... well, that's where your problem is coming from. It does not take long for organics to start to decompose.

Anyway, it'll be good for you to post your tank details or photos if you need more help.

Update: corrected HS2 to H2S. Thanks Robert.

[Shadow]

That is correct beside Hydrogen Sulphide is H2S not HS2

[Eightfold]

i do not have any rooted plants, using master soil not magic. are rooted plants a must for soil substrate to prevent this? or if gex soil will not pose such problem?

how to go abt restarting..if the filter media reeks of the smell too. again, dun have other tank to house shrimp if restart

[vinz]

The filter media too? That's bad. Means that your filter is full of the anaerobic bacteria. Possibly caused by shrimp food (if you're feeding them such stuff) or dead plant matter being stuck in the fine or biological filter media.

What kind of filter are you using? Canister, hanging, overhead. etc?

If you are not planning to plant any rooting plants, then use a substrate that is not "fertile". I.e. none of those planted substrates that are full of fertilisers. Just use plain gravel.

You don't need another tank to house your shrimps... any large enough clean container will do, such as pails, plastic basins.

You should consider getting yourself one of those cheap plastic tanks, at least a 1 ft long one. The ones with a plastic mesh cover often used by LFS to house terrapins, newts, crabs, lobsters, feeder crickets, etc. If you're in the hobby seriously, you're going to need spare containers to quarantine new or sick livestock, stand by for leaking/broken tanks and other situations.

[Eightfold]

restart tank, what substrate should i use? and my media is gone case, means i have to restart cycling process?

the eden sponge where to get replacement..

ahh..