Stale water smell

[joelwong]

I have got a 1 feet tank and a 38cm tank in my study room(enclosed with air conditioning on) ,even with regular water change, the room will still be filled with stale water smell. (Wonder if anybody has got a solution to this). So unless you would like your room to smell like a fish tank, I wouldn't advise that (Maybe a the covered nano tank you were mentioning would not have such issue).

[coryfav]

There's something not right about the water - you'll have to check on that. Tank water shouldn't smell.

[joelwong]

There's something not right about the water - you'll have to check on that. Tank water shouldn't smell.

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Oh no, then there must be something wrong with my water, I'm using the hang on type of filter with wool and sponge for my media, wool washed or changed every week, 20% water change every 4-5 days (anything beyond that, the water will stink even more). It's those stale water smell. Is there anything I can do?

Threadstarter: Sorry to hijack your thread a little
(squee's note: Thread created from another thread)

[coryfav]

When we talk about 'regular water change', we've to bear in mind that there's no standard 'how much and how often' as each tank is different - we can only take that as a guide.

For your setup, what's your bioload like? When the water smell, I normally suspect: under-filtration and/or decaying matters. The beneficial bacteria is not able to deal with the amount of ammonia being generated?

More information about your setup and perhaps even a couple of photos may help.

[joelwong]

Thanks for your reply, for 1 tank, it's about 10-11 litres, there are 20 neon tetra, 6 glowlight tetra, 1 kuhli loach and a $1 plant from C328 (looks a little like this one http://www.aquahobby.com/garden/e_Rotala_nanjenshan.php, is there any other website which there is photoID for plants?), plant is on the plastic basket that comes with it, no gravel.

Filter is a 3w mini hang on filter from Oceanfree, There is a hang on PL light (Not too sure of the wattage as it is not indicated on the tube)


The other tank is a 22 litre Nisso tank with 5 small parrot tank, using a Dolphin H-300 Hang on filter. Bare tank.

Water change is 20% every 4-5 days.

I just started on the hobby, so have yet to invest in any test kit.


Thanks
The other tank is

[bclee]

You have too many fishes there in the tiny 11L tank.

Get a bigger tank or reduce the number of fishes. Otherwise, you will run into problem soon.

You should not need to change or wash the filter media every week. If you need to do so, you are probably having too many fishes or too small a filter.

BC

[|squee|]

20 neon tetras in a 11L tank is already over the top. Suggest you keep maximum 10... I'd keep 5 personally.

[joelwong]

ok thanks, i thought by being more deligent with my water changes and filter cleaning, I am able to squeeze more into the tank as they look pretty bare. Looks like i have got to upgrade to a bigger tank

[evolim83]

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I'm using the hang on type of filter with wool and sponge for my media, wool washed or changed every week

I think this might be the possible cause of the foul smell!
I think when you replace the wool and sponge, you are removing almost all the benefitcial bacteria and they have to start to colonised again.

As your bioload is rather high for a small tank, ammonia is build up rather quickly and that is when you start to get the smell.

I dont think there's a need to change filter wool and sponge every week.
I use mine till they start to disintegrate.

When you carry out weekly maintance, you should wash you wool and sponge with just tank water, not tap water.

Hope this will helps!

[joelwong]

(squee's note: no point quoting posts in full, especially if yours is going to be the next one after that post! )

Thanks, will make it a point to wash the filter with only tank water, I have bought a 40X30X30 tank with a over head filter, meant for 'Lego' scaping, guess I will use that for my tetras. Hope that all these change in tanks will not stress them up too much