Come Back From The Weekend And The Water Doesnt Smell Right

[Phoenixfish]

got woke up this moring after having the worst weekend of my life ( family member died, squaters in one of the buildings we are doing up with drugs up till 2 friday and 12 last night ...in short im not a happy bunnyT.T)

and i go to turn the light on and theres a strong smell of rot and waste so i check the water and have high
NO2 and NO3(note the 3fish are still alive thank god)
so i do a 50% water change(by a gavel vacum), clean the blue filter material and then pull out the filter sucker thingy (systemised tank)(sorry bout laymans)
to find it covered in decomposing waste so i clean that off
but the water and general area still smell of waste etc

i have a 4.5 systemised tank with 1 bronze cory and 2 abino tiger barbs
( i also have had some new plants, mixed pots half of which have died off etc)

i plan to do another water change later on in say 6hours

have i done the correct thing?
how will i get the water pure and sweet again just keep at it?

note ive only had it runnig for a few weeks, with the help of TetraAqua Bactozym (a general bacteria booster and lowers new tank syn so that i could add fish in after 24 hours)

please reply back etc
L aka Phoenixfish

 

[TammyLiz]

It sounds like your tank is not cycled. Water changes will relieve the fish until the bacteria catch up to the bio load. So what do you mean by "high" NO2? How high? What fish do you have in there? And how often have you cleaned it? Just asking to try to figure out why the the filter is clogged and the water smells bad.
Also, just in case, since there is a bad smell. Do you see any bluish green slime in the tank? Check the gravel under the surface along the glass, and any back areas where you wouldn't notice but there is a lot of light. This would be BGA and that stuff stinks.

 

[Phoenixfish]

It sounds like your tank is not cycled. Water changes will relieve the fish until the bacteria catch up to the bio load. So what do you mean by "high" NO2? How high? What fish do you have in there? And how often have you cleaned it? Just asking to try to figure out why the the filter is clogged and the water smells bad.
Also, just in case, since there is a bad smell. Do you see any bluish green slime in the tank? Check the gravel under the surface along the glass, and any back areas where you wouldn't notice but there is a lot of light. This would be BGA and that stuff stinks.

yes well i wasnt sure if it had cycled properly but the pill 'apparently' cycles it in 24 hours
i cant rember how high but on the top end of the scale
i have 3 " of fish as in my sig,
i think its because we had to mixed pots of plants and half the varity has died off but i managesd to get most of it out so that could be the NO2 bomb
and i havent notest any slime but ill look in a min
so should i do another water change tonight/tomorrow untill it drops like a fish cycl?
thanks for the reply

 

[TammyLiz]

Yes, water changes shouldn't be too hard in that small of a tank, so theres no reason not to. With the reading that high, the fish might succumb to disease anyway. Hopefully not, though. Are you planning on getting a larger tank? Those fish probably already feel crowded, and they will get bigger.
The rotting plants are the most likely culprit for the pollution you described. That was pretty severe! Hope it works out for you. I started with a tank even smaller than that one almost ten years ago, and still managed to fall in love with the hobby.

 

[Trance2006]

No bacteria enzyme has shown proof. However Bio-Spira is a live culture that does work. Some members like me have found Cycle by Hagen to work also.

It just depends if the product is in a fridge. I am lucky since my lfs gets it cold and puts it in the fridge. And I can say that I have used both fridged cycle and bio-spira by marine land and find that they are the best thing.

 

[Phoenixfish]

ill just becarefull and watch the stats and do a fish cycle
ive got to do a water change tonight anyway to get the no2 levels down, i may chuck one of those pills in anyway because they apparently get rid of excess level...but that would stop the cycling prosess...hmm

-------------------------------------

'next day'

i think it might have cycled ive now only got a reading of 50 NO3 compared to the 225 ish before
and 1 No2 compared to the 8 before (this was after two 30% water changes tho so it might just be low)
but it still smells quite bad of rotting vegetation,