Bad smell in tank

[CryptFan]

Hello everyone,
I am not sure if this is the correct forum but, here goes.
so I decided to splurge and get a ton of plants and i also bought some more really nice Ohko stone To redo my 36 gal bow front. I took all the fish out and drained the tank then washed all the sand. I left one of my hob filter on the tank full of water, well today( around 5 days later) I filled the tank back up and turned on the heater. I didn’t think to drain the filter first, and I just turned it on, then I realized it has a very bad smell coming from it so I changed the filter pad out. Well know the water smells bad! I tested the ammonia and it’s at 0 ppm. I will test everything else a little later, I really don’t want to have to drain the whole tank again( as my python does not connect my sink, which makes water changes very unpleasant!) but it might have to come to that. What do yall think?

 

[Retired Viking]

Is it a bad sulfur smell like rotten eggs?

 

[CryptFan]

Is it a bad sulfur smell like rotten eggs?

No its more of a dead smell. Which could have been from snails that were in the filter or dead beneficial bacteria because the water was cold and stagnent,but I fell if that were the case there would be an ammonia spike.

 

[FishGuest5123]

Add some activated charcoal and let it run a couple of days. That’s about the only thing charcoal is good for...removing odors and meds.

 

[CryptFan]

Add some activated charcoal and let it run a couple of days. That’s about the only thing charcoal is good for...removing odors and meds.

Will do! I was thinking that charcoal would work. I will pick some up tomorrow

 

[Colin_T]

do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day for a week.
make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it's added to the tank.

clean the filter if it hasn't been done in the last 2 weeks.
wash filter media/ materials in a bucket of tank water and re-use them.

increase aeration/ surface turbulence.

 

[CryptFan]

do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day for a week.
make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it's added to the tank.

clean the filter if it hasn't been done in the last 2 weeks.
wash filter media/ materials in a bucket of tank water and re-use them.

increase aeration/ surface turbulence.

already resolved. i put fresh activated carbon in the filter and the smell is gone.

 

[seangee]

do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day for a week.
make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it's added to the tank.

clean the filter if it hasn't been done in the last 2 weeks.
wash filter media/ materials in a bucket of tank water and re-use them.

Suggest you do this anyway. Tanks should not smell bad so this could be an early warning. Filtering out the smell will only mask the cause rather than fixing it.

 

[FishGuest5123]

Actually, it will filter it out. Same with meds. That’s why we use it on OD Patients. Acts as a purifier. I think he knows what caused it. Of course, water Changes never hurt.