New used aquarium setup - smell and all

[Grant_J]

Hi all,

I'm new here, but thanks for all the welcomes to the community. I plan to be a regular contributor (just ask MBWorld since I got my first Benz) and welcome your input here. First off, I'm a 100% newbie. As in, 'I'm really proud I saw all the 5-minute reef guide videos from BTS' new. Anyway, I have a 125G tank I bought Wednesday from a guy on Facebook. The tank looked good, but when I got there it had some neglect issues. I decided to proceed and try to revive this puppy and save the poor fish inside. (See the pre-purchase state photo, sorry it's a partial tank.)

So here's the deal. I'm looking to find out why this thing is current smelling SO bad. Please see the timeline below and suggest any solutions. I've learned that much of this hobby is learning to wait, but I'd really like to know I'm doing the right thing, then waiting. Thanks in advance!

1. I installed the tank the same day of purchase to get the fish in. I put in the retained water (50%) and a few rocks, and gave them air & heat. He had a TON of sand in there, and I thought I was doing good putting in about 2/3 of it and adding a 1/2" layer of new sand on top to slow the stirred up ick.
2. The next day after work I got additional water inside and got the pumps and filter going. Note: This includes a Red Reef Reef Mat. It was still cloudy from putting everything back in, and the fish seemed ok, and they were happy to eat.
3. Friday the tank was looking pretty clear already and it was clear the fish were VERY happy to have the lights working. The puffer I inherited found a way to make the wavemaker push him around, so I knew he was ok. However, the tank is VERY smelly right now. I'm fighting the odor in my office and trying to keep it out of the whole house, hoping this is temporary if I can find the answer.
4. I got the water tested Friday afternoon by LFS (Love Aquatic Critter!), with these results:
Salinity :1.025 (at least I got the new water right)
Ammonia: 1.0
Nitrites: 160
Nitrates: 0.5
Calcium: 520
Alkalinity: 12
Phosphates: 10.0

5. Ok, you're either gonna applaud me or shake your head. I saw the ammonia and nitrites and thought of new tank cycling, so I added 4oz of MicroBacter start for Nitrifying bacteria.

Any other things I should be doing to eliminate this smell? Thanks for any advice!

-G

 

[jsmkmavity]

Smell is probably form the sand. You probably smelled it when you removed it for transport.
IMO putting it back in might have been a mistake if you didnt clean it before puting it back in. If there is any algae in the tank that can have some odor also(think low tide at the ocean). If randy chimes in he could list the various compounds that are released. A lot of the smell is probably sulfer.

 

[jsmkmavity]

Sulfur

 

[Grant_J]

Smell is probably form the sand. You probably smelled it when you removed it for transport.
IMO putting it back in might have been a mistake if you didnt clean it before puting it back in. If there is any algae in the tank that can have some odor also(think low tide at the ocean). If randy chimes in he could list the various compounds that are released. A lot of the smell is probably sulfer.

Yep, the sand definitely needs cleaned. After watching a few youtube videos this looks daunting, but needs done as part of a water change. I'm not sure what to do about sulfur but will look it up. Thank you.

 

[Tamberav]

From the sand. You either toss old sand or rinse it. It’s basically like putting a stirred up toilet under your new sand.

 

[Grant_J]

Sulfur

Any suggestions on what I should do to correct it? Google has suggestions that are not helpful for an aquarium housing live fish. Thanks.

 

[TX_REEF]

adding some activated carbon to the filter should help with the smell.

 

[Grant_J]

From the sand. You either toss old sand or rinse it. It’s basically like putting a stirred up toilet under your new sand.

Yeah, the approach seems more and more useless... $50 gone. Welcome to reefing?

 

[Grant_J]

Forgot to mention, I added carbon today but underestimated the bag size needed. Adding more tomorrow. Thanks for letting me know this was a good move.

adding some activated carbon to the filter should help with the smell.

 

[jsmkmavity]

Move the fish and rock and water to a container while you remove the sand and take it outside in buckets and clean with a hose till all clean. Once the sand is out you can clean the tank and put the rock and fish back in untill you decide what to do about sand. After cleaning with tap water do another rinse with r.o. water then you can put sand in to your preferred depth. I would probably only use an inch or so myself.

 

[Tamberav]

Yeah, the approach seems more and more useless... $50 gone. Welcome to reefing?

Suck the sand out and rinse it good and then you can use it again. Run carbon to help with the smell.

 

[Grant_J]

Suck the sand out and rinse it good and then you can use it again. Run carbon to help with the smell.

Looks like Sunday will be fun!

 

[Grant_J]

Hey all, I have a question. I have a bucket of the sand and the water going through it is now coming out pretty clear (a little tan cloudy but not gross). There are still a bunch of these black specs in it that aren't floating out even with agitation. Is this just part of some brands of sand, or am I just doing it wrong?

 

[Grant_J]

Hey all, I have a question. I have a bucket of the sand and the water going through it is now coming out pretty clear (a little tan cloudy but not gross). There are still a bunch of these black specs in it that aren't floating out even with agitation. Is this just part of some brands of sand, or am I just doing it wrong?

Update: I decided to investigate a bit further and these are really hard but breakable. I think I'm looking at bits of carbon. Sound right?

 

[Devaji]

they could also be snail shells.

 

[TastesLikeChicken]

“There’s nothing like the smell of [aquarium] in the morning”.

 

[Grant_J]

they could also be snail shells.

Ok, I cleaned the sand and indeed one snail shell came out. :) I found a free way to make this a much less manual process. The videos on youtube were painful to watch. I'm too old, out of shape, and yeah kinda too lazy for that. I'll post my rigged-up sand rinsing system ASAP. Thank you all for your help and advice! The tank is already smelling much better. It also seems I need to clean my skimmer more than once a week...ick.

 

[Devaji]

Ok, I cleaned the sand and indeed one snail shell came out. :) I found a free way to make this a much less manual process. The videos on youtube were painful to watch. I'm too old, out of shape, and yeah kinda too lazy for that. I'll post my rigged-up sand rinsing system ASAP. Thank you all for your help and advice! The tank is already smelling much better. It also seems I need to clean my skimmer more than once a week...ick.

yeah we all want to see it.
it's work smarter not harder type of thing :)

 

[SaltwaterFishy]

Yep, the sand definitely needs cleaned. After watching a few youtube videos this looks daunting, but needs done as part of a water change. I'm not sure what to do about sulfur but will look it up. Thank you.

For the sand, what I do is I take a Siphon and put a fine mesh bag on the end and zip tie it on (fine media bags for charcoal for example) this works really well for me when I need to Siphon my sand when ammonia bubbles begin to form.

 

[pazlebon]

You dont have to use sand at all:) you seem to have ample really rock