How can I reduce the odor of my fish aquarium?

Question

I have a 20 gallon freshwater aquarium. The odor seems stronger then normal. I have had fish tanks in the past and they have not smelled as bad.

Sometimes I can smell the odor of the tank when I walk into the door. You can also sometimes smell it as you walk past.

The tank is cleaned every 2 weeks with a filter change. There is no algae. No missing fish. Can anyone give me advice on how to reduce or eliminate the foul odor? Thanks in advance.

I WILL CHOOSE BEST ANSWER VERY SOON!

Change the filter only twice a year? I don't think so. That is why you have bio-wheel. Also 25% water change and filter change weekly...too excessive and possibly dangerous to the health of the fish.

Every other week I change the carbon filter, change 25% water, add aquarium salt and of course stress coat. I also clean the gravel.

Does anyone actually know anything about FISH in here?

You do not change an established aquarium water EVERY WEEK!!! This is not who told me this this is the reality. I have stuided the BEST guides and learned from various people with degrees in icktheology.

I have only 4 small fish. I have a biowheel 20-40 filter. Bio-wheel is the best filters on the market by the way.

So much for getting sound advice. The best advice I have gotten so far is go to wal-mart and get the odor remover.

Answer 1

they have a bottle of stuff at walmart in the fish section , you put drops in ever so often, it takes away the odor

Answer 2

That is the overwhelming smell of ammonia, which is found in fish doo doo, gravel, stangnant water and such try cleaning the tank again thoroughly and using a filter

Answer 3

A healthy fish tank should at most have a pleasant earthy ordor. Any other odor is likely to much ammonia, or nitrites/nitrates. You should test your tank's water for ammonia, and nitrates. The only way to reduce the smell is to do weekly water changes, and not to over feed/stock.

Answer 4

Performing Your Weekly 10-15% Water Change
http://www.firsttankguide.net/waterchange.php

Answer 5

Filter, filter, filter. I would normally change the filter at least once a week and change 25% of the water (with sufficient conditioner). That way you can clean the tank once in three weeks or a month.

Ensure that you don't drop too much of food in it. I feed them in small quantities and ensure that the food doesn't get precipitated to the bottom of the tank.

Answer 6

relying just on the filter to clean the tank is ridiculous! you HAVE to change out the water, clean or replace the gravel etc.
fish poop falls to the bottom of the tank and just settles there, it's not sucked into the filter.

time to get your hands dirty!

Answer 7

Wow, some of the silly notions people have. Odor in the tank is from chemicals in the water, pure and simple. You can remove them one of two ways, water changes and carbon. Increase your water changes to 25% every week and change the filter carbon every week. Carbon absorbs chemicals from the water and gets "used up" rather quickly. It should be changed often. I note people telling you filters should not be changed, that is simply wrong. The fact is filters MUST be changed to do their job correctly. The majority of the beneficial bacteria your tank needs is not in the filter. That bacteria lives on every wet surface in the tank. Removing the filter media and replacing it will not harm your nitrogen cycle in the least. All of the junk the filter collects adds to the bio load of the tank as it breaks down. The tank is much better off with it out of the system. Try this for 2-3 weeks, you won't be disappointed.

Answer 8

In your fish filter, do you have carbon? Carbon eliminates most odors in the filter, and lastly, you don't have to clean the filter that often.

Answer 9

Whoever told you a 25% water change weekly was excessive and bad for the fish gave you a bum steer. Consider: in nature, fish live in an environment where they get 100% water change often, daily even, from the natural flow of water. If you only change 25% every two weeks, your fish are only getting a full tank of clean water once every two months! There are things in clean water that they need, oxygen not the least!

25% weekly changes out the water 100% per month, WITHOUT stressing the fish. And that's still not even close to as good they'd get in the wild.

The odour is probably caused by ammonia, which means your bioload is too big for your bacteria to handle. You may not have cycled properly or you may simply have too many fish creating too much waste for the bacteria to handle. Either way, the solution is to increase your water changes. Wash out the filter cartridge in the bucket of old water each week, and replace the cartridge once a month. (If you're using a bio-wheel filter, you need to change it every two weeks as you have been doing, those filters are so NOT my favourite for that, and other, reasons)

Good luck!

Answer 10

it could mean 2-3 things ur filter needs to be cleaned out to much fish food u r feeding them .clean the media or buy new media how big is ur tank and size of filter. the filter might no be strong enough to clean it