Pseudomonas Smell

[Jools :)]

Hi,
can anyone help? I have a 165L tank which has suddenly developed a strong pseudomonas smell. I clean the tank out every 2 weeks & do a partial water change 1-2 times inbetween cleaning. I have live plants & thought the smell may be coming from them as I found out that one of the plants I bought from my local aquarium stockists was not actually a "water plant". However,I got rid of it and the smell has come back. Nitrate,ammonia,etc all ok. I`ve just added an anti`-bacterial med which treats pseudomonas but would really like to prevent this from returning....any thoughts would be greatly appreciated!.

 

[WILDER]

Does the water smell like sulphur or rotten eggs.

 

[Jools :)]

it doesn`t smell of either of those to me...it`s like stagnant water or water which has had flowers standing in it for too long. This is another reason I wondered if it was the plants but I try to remove dead leaves etc as soon as I see them.

 

[WILDER]

Ok.
If the plants are not meant for tanks I would remove them.
I would also post in the plant section of the forum.

Keep doing water change.
If any dead leaves or debris remove it.
Also hoover around your plants to remove debris.

Does it look like the leaves and plants are rotting away.
Has this happened only since adding the plants to the tank.
Did you steralise the plants before adding them to the tank.

 

[Jools :)]

Thanks for the suggestion Wilder!,I`ll give the plants section a try as I already removed the non-water plants & use my gravel vac regularly.

The plants I removed a few weeks ago were starting to rot but the ones I have now look healthy. I didn`t realise it was possible to sterilise plants before adding them so I didn`t do that.

 

[WILDER]

Best to steralise plants before adding them to the tank.
You will get alot more help in the plants section of the forum.

I don't have live plants, so don't know much about them.
They can carry parasites and bacteria.
Rotting plants can send water cloudy and smelly.
But if the problem still occuring afer removal, the bacteria might not of gone yet.

The water changes and bacteria med will help.

 

[loraxchick]

the smell is likely just from the decaying plant material. take the ding plants out. prune all the dead leaves. do a good substrate clean and big waterchange. see if that helps.
keep in mind that a mature tank should smell like dirt (or have an earthy smell to it). likely it is just the decaying plants. a good filter clean might also me in order. i would NOT treat with antibiotics!
cheers