Worst smells in the hobby

[bluemon]

What are your guys's least favorite smells you have smelled in the hobby?

I have a strong stomach, and skimmates don't smell bad at all to me (it just makes me happy the skimmer is doing the work), but DEAD SNAILS are the WORST.

It's not a particular snail either. I have smelled trochus, nassarius, vermetid snails. They all have that putrid funk that you cannot forget.

 

[w8lifts]

Algae barn PNS bacteria

 

[TurboTang]

At first I thought nothing could top a dead snail. Then I had to deal with my 26-head torch coral when it died from brown jelly disease….

Completely agree here - first time I sniffed a snail to see if it was dead taught me a hard lesson. That smell sticks like glue. But when I had a decline on my 30 head hammer I read on here you could verify if it was brown jelly by sniff test. My nose is permanently damaged - and my fav hammer is gone:eek:

 

[silvester13]

What are your guys's least favorite smells you have smelled in the hobby?

I have a strong stomach, and skimmates don't smell bad at all to me (it just makes me happy the skimmer is doing the work), but DEAD SNAILS are the WORST.

It's not a particular snail either. I have smelled trochus, nassarius, vermetid snails. They all have that putrid funk that you cannot forget.

Long story but I had an auqaponic setup with 40 tilapia in a large tank in a greenhouse in 100 degree heat. Went on vacation and came back to a shorted pump that killed all the tilapia they sat in the sun for several days and I got home to have to shovel dead fish and a foot thick pile of maggots out. It was the worst smell ever, I threw up my toenails over and over as I shoveled the putrid hell out of the greenhouse

 

[Calizoa]

All not the worst smell. Dead shrimp

 

[wlmalek]

Honestly I don’t care about bad smells. They don’t bother me.
when I maintain anything around or grab something from the tank I sniff intentionally (skimmate-coral-snail-media-ect..) to get an idea about how bad are they. Some are pretty bad.

But, the worst smell I have ever had and it made me throw up immediately was dead carpet anemone. The moment It went out of the water it nuked the whole house in seconds.

 

[Mr_Knightley]

The worst smell I ever encountered was a 1-inch turbo snail that dried out in a drain pipe for weeks before I found it. It was shockingly similar to fresh cat poop in aroma, that was the closest I've come to vomiting due to smell in my life.
Very close second is dead coral, similar smell but a bit more... caustic smelling. Like the bottom of a rotten compost pile.