New Tank Smells After 5 Days

[CSI_Nikki]

Hello!
Please remember, I'm new here and really new at fish keeping. I know that I should have researched a lot more then I did before I started, but well, I got a little ahead of myself... I know that I made the biggest mistake in fish keeping - adding fish within the first 48 hours...

Anyway's, on to my question: I've only had the tank set-up for about 5 days now and did everything as the booklet that came with the tank said to do. I got everything set up and added a few same Tetra fish after the 48 hours (as the booklet said, now after researching I found that I shouldn't have done that for atleast 2 weeks or more)

But about 2 days ago I went to feed the fish and noticed that the tank had odd smell to it. I'm not even sure how to explain it... it's not a "fishy" smell or a 'dirty water' smell. I have no clue what it is but its almost getting worse...

Can anyone help me out?

Thanks,
-Nikki

 

[bobbicus]

is it a "rotten egg" smell - pungent, thich - choaky smell

or a "earthy" smell like wet soil or a peat - type scent

if there is a pungent kinda smell - then this could be a sign that water quality is not as clean as it should be - water change is needed and cut down on the feeding

have you got the water stats???

 

[CSI_Nikki]

is it a "rotten egg" smell - pungent, thich - choaky smell

I guess that sounds about right... like I said though, the tanks only been up for 5 days at the most...

No, I don't have my water stats right now, I'd have to go search my house to see if I can find that paper that I wrote some info down on but I think I left it in the car (of all places) but I did take a water sample up to the petstore today and they said that the water was fine and that I should take out 10% of the water and add some more "Stress Zyam" (I think thats how it's spelled). Plus, my one tiger barb just died, but I have no clue what's goin' on...

Since I had to work late today I didn't get to change the water yet but I added the Stress Zyam stuff but tomorrow's my day off so I'm going to do the 10% water change then as well as do some more research to find out what else could be wrong... I'm just confused.

-Nikki

 

[chishnfips]

are any fish missing? could be a dead un thats causing the smell.

 

[saboy]

Yea, check for missing fish, if they all are there, then this is odd,


Only other advice is water changes,

 

[CSI_Nikki]

Nope. All my fish are there. There was a dead one a few days ago but I got him out right away...

I'm gonna do the water change that the petstore said to and see what happens...

 

[Die_Grinder]

normally a foul smell in a new tank is high ammonia, dont add any life to the tank leave it as is (if you can put up with the smell that is lol ) other than that do a 30% water change, or add ammolock. must be something giving off the high ammonia tho like over feeding, dead fish, too many fish too soon.

best get your water tested asap imo tho.

DG

 

[CSI_Nikki]

I already had the water tested yesterday... they said that it was perfectly fine. So I idk.

Anyways, I ended up doing the 10% water change as PetSmart told me to... I think I ended up taking out about 20% since somehow I dropped the little hose thingy and water went EVERYWHERE in my living room, so that was a mess... oy.

As of now its not that bad spelling after the small water change, hopefully it doesn't get any worse again. We'll see tomorrow.

 

[Nevernormalalwayscrazy]

Even If they say your water is fine I highly doubt your tank has cycled yet (this could be why one fish died), and you may get more deaths latter on. Pet stores may not test for ammonia witch could cause a smell and fish death. What size is the tank? What kind of fish do you have? If you overstocked your tank it will smell a really wierd. A good rule is 1-1.5 inch of fish per gal of water. Have you read about cycling a tank? here is a link that may help:

http/faq.thekrib.com/begin-cycling.html

Hope this helps

 

[CSI_Nikki]

Uh... they checked for ammonia and said that it was slighty high but not to bad. After reading and reseaching a little more I'd starting to think that the tank isn't cycled... like I said, I'm new to this.

"What size is the tank?" - 20gals

"What kind of fish do you have?" - 1 Bleeding Heart Tetra, 2 Serpae Tetras , 1 Clown Loach , 1 Guppy, 2 Mollies, 1 Swordtail.

I'm thinking that I overstocked the tank to soon.

Thanks for the link and the help. I hope that I can get this fixed soon... I still have no clue what I am doing...

 

[sussexgirl]

Uh... they checked for ammonia and said that it was slighty high but not to bad. After reading and reseaching a little more I'd starting to think that the tank isn't cycled... like I said, I'm new to this.

"What size is the tank?" - 20gals

"What kind of fish do you have?" - 1 Bleeding Heart Tetra, 2 Serpae Tetras , 1 Clown Loach , 1 Guppy, 2 Mollies, 1 Swordtail.

I'm thinking that I overstocked the tank to soon.

Thanks for the link and the help. I hope that I can get this fixed soon... I still have no clue what I am doing...

forgive me if I'm wrong but I thought you needed a much bigger tank than you have to house clown loach? I have a 30 gallon tank and had pretty much ruled mine out for being too small. Anyone know?

 

[Bex]

No, you are right. I wanted clown loaches in my 30 gal but kept reading that it was too small. And I think that they should be kept in groups of at least 3 cos they like to have mates! You could see if the shop will take back the clown loach?

 

[chishnfips]

I already had the water tested yesterday... they said that it was perfectly fine. So I idk.

Anyways, I ended up doing the 10% water change as PetSmart told me to... I think I ended up taking out about 20% since somehow I dropped the little hose thingy and water went EVERYWHERE in my living room, so that was a mess... oy.

As of now its not that bad spelling after the small water change, hopefully it doesn't get any worse again. We'll see tomorrow.

There is no such thing as "not too bad amonia" in a tank. Any amonia is bad and should be removed, using water changes.

If the tank isn't cycled properly yet the best thing to do is boost the cycle by adding stress zyme. Is the water looking slightly misty at all?

 

[Miss Wiggle]

yup clwon loaches need a much bigger tank, think they get to something like 10"

 

[LouiseRat]

best piece of advice i can give , is to ignore what petsmart say , they havent got a clue

1 . get yourself to a descent small shop , dedicated to fish and aquariums .

2 . get a water testing kit asap that tests for ammonia , nitrites , nitrates and ph