Water Smell

[BronxReefer]

Hey Reefers..

Issue: My tank smells well, not bad...but musty, like a wet, dirty mop or moldy?

 

Tank: 16 Gallon Bio, charcoal to help water, skimmer, live rock in back, no bio balls...

Sand: Brand new - I had to do a complete change of the sand as I had used someone's old sand, which was throughly rinsed and rinsed and rinsed...It just seemed to grow diatoms too easy, so I switched it all out for pink Fiji sand...looks great...and no issues with cycling or lost a single coral or critter. This was 4 weeks ago.

 

Livestock: Tons of softies, frog and hammers, zoos, polys, etc, toadstool...all good and look good. One royal gamma, one little red head goby and one yellow goby. One white porcelain, snails and hermits, mostly scarlett.

 

I did a water change, added a new charcoal filter, and removed my skimmer...it smells LESS musty but the smell is still there??? All my research says I have a dead animal...I've been reefing for 20 years...I know what a dead animals smells like, plus my CUC would devour it in hours..

 

Any thoughts? I have NEVER had this musty smell...

[Tired]

That's odd. Do you think it's coming from the tank, the filter section, anywhere in particular? 

 

Is it bad enough to be a problem for you? 

 

How old is the tank? 

 

Unrelated, careful with that gramma, they can be really territorial as they mature. Especially in smaller tanks.

[DISQUALIFIED-QQ]

I wonder if some rogue water got on the floors or walls and got damp. I feel like that musty smell comes from mildew growing on something. Check around for leaks or just random pools of water.

[BronxReefer]

I know it is the tank. I smell it from upstairs. Very odd. And it started after I changed my sand. 

I'm taking some water to my LFS(really coral store) and have them smell and test it. 

[A.m.P]

Hmmm, if you changed your sand my bet is nutrients, possibly a bacterial/algae bloom, taking the skimmer offline may have "helped" by reducing gas exchange.

I recently stopped mine from being recirculating for this exact reason, the skimmer was moving the nasty exhaust air back through the tank water and made the whole tank smell musty and off.

 

Now I just have a line running the exhaust through some carbon, in the meantime you could try putting carbon in a filter sock or some mosquito netting and drop that in a rear chamber with decent flow.

[mcarroll]

ATO reservoir?