What is the sour smell coming from my freshwater tank?

Question

I have a 55 gallon freshwater tank which has been established for a few months. I added 8 various African Cichlids and a Blue Lobster. The next morning the room its in smelled foul. I opened the tank and the water has a very sour smell to it. Does any one know what this is and is there anyway to remove it?

Answer 1

Are all the fish, and the lobster, still alive? If one of them died and is rotting in a corner somewhere, that can stink up a tank.
When is the last time you did a thorough gravel vacuum? You should be doing a 30% water change and gravel vac every week; so if you haven't been so, do it now, and start with a 50% water change this week (and get in there good in the gravel with the syphon tube). You might also want to cut back a bit on your fish. 8 africans and a blue crayfish is a fairly heavy bioload for a 55 gallon tank (once your consider the water displacement for the rockwork, anyway) - try 6 africans instead of 8. Also be sure not to overfeed; only give them what they can eat within 40 seconds, twice a day.

If you are doing weekly gravel vacs, and are not overfeeding or do not have any rotting matter in the tank, then look at the water source. Does your water smell funny out of the tap? Or, possibly, does your water conditionner smell sulfery? Certain brands, like Amquel, contain a sulfer, and therefore can small like sulfer.

Regardless, just increase the amount of water changes you do, and you can increase filtration, too. You could either get more powerful filtration (like a Rena XP2 canister filter) or another power (hang off the back) water filter. You can use activated carbon and Zeolite to help absord the odour.

Answer 2

That can be caused by any one of several things, but barring you having a dead fish, it's all solved the same way, water changes.

Be sure you are changing 25% or so of the water every week and cleaning the gravel with a gravel cleaning siphon as you do so. (These are available at any pet shop) That will certainly prevent the odor you are smelling. It might take a week or two to clear up, so you can increase how often you change the water to once every 3-4 days at first until you get things in order. I would also suggest you research filters and be sure you have one large enough for your tank and that you are changing the filter media often enough, usually it should be changed about once a week.

MM

Answer 3

basically, you can't just put fish in an aquarium and expect them to live. You have to grow the right kind of bacteria in the tank so that the bacteria can break down ammonia which is basically fish waste. What happens when the bacteria isn't present is that this ammonia builds up in the new tank and kills the fish. It's also called New Tank Syndrome.

Answer 4

you added them all at once? i would assume ammonia. ammonia smells a little off from the ammonia you buy in a bottle. think bottled ammonia combined with a stinky sponge smell. its funky and its nasty and its a good clue you should do 25% water changes every other day for the next week or so until you get the smell under control.

Answer 5

old food gets trapped in the gravel,where it rots.you now need to clean the whole tank setup. in the future don't over feed the fish & buy some catfish {which helps}

Answer 6

Did you make sure all the fish were alive?

Answer 7

Fungus