Rotten egg smell hydrogen sulfide?

Mil26 · Apr 25, 2021

So I been trying to get rid of this smell for a week now I have tried running carbon with 20% water changes for 4 days and smell still keeps coming back. My tank size is a 25 lagoon started with 20% dry rock and 20lb of live sand the tank has cycled and is 1 month old.The odd thing is I did a test today and Ammonia nitrite and nitrate all are 0 not sure if nitrate is 0 because of all the water changes I been doing. I also just did a water change today and can smell that rotten egg as im tossing that water down the drain is there anything else i can do?
I also ordered a skimmer will be here tomorrow not sure if that will be of any help..

marin8n · Apr 25, 2021

skimmer should make a difference. Sounds like some organic material breaking down as part of the cycle.

brandon429 · Apr 25, 2021

you are allowed to simply deep clean the system too

washing all the sand a certain way, the rocks a certain way, it doesn't cause a recycle it causes an extremely clean happy reef with no downside, we have about a thousand on file in just one thread alone. 6 yrs worth, a single thread. you get to circumvent rules made by and for large tankers with any size lagoon nano, you can just rip clean cheat it back into compliance. it'll smell however new change water smells to you. all organics will be gone.

some of our rip cleans are 30 thousand dollar sps reefs, your new reef is certain not to recycle

it isn't bad, or harmful for some reefs and then totally a lifesaving maneuver for others, knowing how to skip cycle deep clean is the ultimate longevity cheat for any reef. folks tend to evaluate methods not by factoring the outcome from a thou other tanks on file doing the move, but they're a great pattern source.

KrisReef · Apr 25, 2021

You may need to rinse the live sand, or wait for the smell to go away. H2S is detected at very low concentrations by the human nose. It is lethal at one whiff at higher concentrations, so be glad you can smell it! Olfactory fatigue is another issue.

Mil26 · Apr 25, 2021

marin8n said:
skimmer should make a difference. Sounds like some organic material breaking down as part of the cycle.

So should I just continue to let it run and do its thing?

Mil26 · Apr 25, 2021

KrisReef said:
You may need to rinse the live sand, or wait for the smell to go away. H2S is detected at very low concentrations by the human nose. It is lethal at one whiff at higher concentrations, so be glad you can smell it! Olfactory fatigue is another issue.

How would I go about rinsing my sand ? Just get a bucket and rinse with tap till clear? Tia

marin8n · Apr 25, 2021

Mil26 said:
So should I just continue to let it run and do its thing?

skimmer will need to break in but it should start pulling organics pretty quickly if you can get the foam dialed in. I would skim wet to start as well. Give it a week or so and see where you are with water quality/odor

brandon429 · Apr 25, 2021

yes literally that but with a few nuances. welcome to tank surgery, take an hour to read and study jobs then you're ready to repeat. take pics too

reasons we do this: to move reefs to new homes and skip cycle the move. you're doing the same preps they do too but for a different motivation. the ends for any reef is the lowest organics phase the reef will ever see. that's secretly the method to doing this without harming the tank.

if you try and customize, or take in sections, that's where the risk begins as there's no fifty page work threads for that.

Official Sand Rinse and Tank Transfer thread

If you are reading this thread to cure a tank invasion from a link I sent you, we do not need to identify your type of invasion here we do not need you to test anything at anytime regarding nitrate, phosphate etc Above all, we do not need to see a microscope slide picture of your invasion at...

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