# aquarium stench



## 37tall (Jun 22, 2011)

why does my aquarium smell badly? do i need to do more frequent water changes? if this is in the wrong forum, sorry! *c/p*


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## susankat (Nov 15, 2008)

How often and how much water changes are you doing?


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## 37tall (Jun 22, 2011)

once a week and i do 25% water changes. i dont scrub the walls and my fish tank water is kind of a greenish color.


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## susankat (Nov 15, 2008)

Are you running any carbon in the filter. It helps to remove smells, but you need to find the underlying cause of it. Certain algaes will have a bad smell. does it smell like a pond, muddy smell or what?


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## James0816 (Jun 19, 2009)

37tall said:


> and my fish tank water is kind of a greenish color.


Algea bloom.

Carbon in the filter will remove the odors but not stop the bloom. You will need to do a black out for that.


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## BBradbury (Apr 22, 2011)

Good morning 37...

Adding extra chemical filtration (carbon) will absorb some of the smell, but my tanks naturally have a little fishy smell. I guess it depends on your nose sensitivity.

I use small carbon pads in my tanks. They're inexpensive compared to the bagged media. I'm careful using the chemical media because I read or heard that it can remove nutrients from the water. I dose liquid ferts regularly, so that's the reason I just use a small carbon pad in my filters. Don't want to go to the expense of the liquid ferts and my plants not get my money's worth.

B


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## 37tall (Jun 22, 2011)

i use carbon media that i assemble myself, put in carbon and clip together. it doesnt remove the smell and i change those every 3-4 weeks. it smells kind of pondy/fishy. i have been leaving the window open to let in light to grow my plants better could that be the reason for so much algae?


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## Nitlon (Jul 10, 2011)

37tall said:


> i use carbon media that i assemble myself, put in carbon and clip together. it doesnt remove the smell and i change those every 3-4 weeks. it smells kind of pondy/fishy. i have been leaving the window open to let in light to grow my plants better could that be the reason for so much algae?


A "fishy" smell is usually due to ammonia/nitrates/nitrites in the water. Excess nutrients could also explain the algae bloom, though you're right that all that sunlight is probably a factor too. If part of the problem is from the nutrients, your best bet is to do a decently large water change and scrape out all that algae. Don't just leave the algae hanging in the water, either - in order to get out all the nutrients they've converted to biomass, you have to remove it from the tank or the whole thing could start again.


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