Fish Tank Really Smells?

[pablothebetta]

Had my baby biorb up and running for over 2 and a half years now, and have had my current betta in there since february. I've never had any major problems with my water quality, but it has recently started to smell really bad. It's been on and off for a short while now (several weeks, max) and water changes haven't changed it. I do hope to get him a new tank very soon, however (though that's a different topic!). Any idea why its suddenly smelling and any remedies? Thanks

 

[StandbySetting]

What does it smell of? Any cyanobacteria on the substrate?

 

[Caprichoso]

Had my baby biorb up and running for over 2 and a half years now, and have had my current betta in there since february. I've never had any major problems with my water quality, but it has recently started to smell really bad. It's been on and off for a short while now (several weeks, max) and water changes haven't changed it. I do hope to get him a new tank very soon, however (though that's a different topic!). Any idea why its suddenly smelling and any remedies? Thanks

Some big water changes and a good gravel vac should help.

 

[pablothebetta]

E is a very small amount of muck in the substrate, but this is probably due to the fact that everytime I take out the filter cartridge, all the muck comes bellowing out into the aquarium - I did this yesterday and I doubt it has found its way back into the cartridge part yet. He's fed 12-15 tiny spherical floating betta pellets a day (I know he's a little overfed), usually in 2-3 "mealtimes". I'm not really sure what it smells of, but definitely not rotten eggs (I've been looking up my issue all over the web, and this came up once or twice, and certainly isn't present in my case).

 

[soybean]

...12-15 a day?! Good grief!

 

[jnms]

One of my tanks recently started smelling pretty bad! I stopped feeding the fish for 3 days and the smell went away.

I was over feeding them. Now I feed them a lot less and the smell hasn't returned.

 

[soybean]

All that food = a lot of waste. How often do you do thorough gravel vacs? I think you also risk constipating your betta with so many pellets - they have tiny stomachs.

 

[Fishy friend2]

I only feed mine 4 to 5 a day and try not to feed more than 5

 

[pablothebetta]

Well i was kind of following the instructions which said no more than 12, but it didn't seem much for him as they are pretty tiny, even if he does have a small stomach tried to post a picture of the food but it didn't work - they're hikari betta bio-gold pellets, about 2mm across. Will try feeding him less, how many do you think I should be giving him a day?

All that food = a lot of waste. How often do you do thorough gravel vacs? I think you also risk constipating your betta with so many pellets - they have tiny stomachs.

Gravel vacs each time I do a 20-30% water change which is every tqo weeks, though when I did it on saturday, I discoevered my siphon was broken so I wasn't able to

 

[jnms]

You gotta remember that a fish stomach is around the same size as its eye.

Also, fish have a very, very low metabolism, the don't need much food because the are cold-blooded and do not have to generate body heat like we do. We need a huge amount of energy in order to create body heat. Fish don't need that.

Those two things combined mean they don't need much food at all.

 

[soybean]

I used to feed those pellets. I fed three or four pellets a day, with a day off food in the week, and also fed bloodworm and other frozen foods for variety. He lasted years on this and was never constipated or bloated.

You should be doing gravel vacs and water changes weekly with all that mess building up, not fortnightly. I think the smell is being caused by overpolluting the tank.

 

[coldcazzie]

I used to feed those pellets. I fed three or four pellets a day, with a day off food in the week, and also fed bloodworm and other frozen foods for variety. He lasted years on this and was never constipated or bloated.

You should be doing gravel vacs and water changes weekly with all that mess building up, not fortnightly. I think the smell is being caused by overpolluting the tank.

I agree, you're waaaaaaaaaaaay overfeeding him. Fish don't even need daily feeding, so 3-4 every other day would be fine. Weekly water changes are a must really, and gravel vac every time you do it.