Strange smell

[sgoodine]

Strange smell

 

My 7 gallon tank has been up with no problems for almost 2 months now until last night. I noticed a strange smell coming from the tank. It basically smells like something died in there IMO (you have to be really closed to the water to notice it though). I immediately tested for Ammonia, Nitrite, and Nitrate –All ok. I then checked Ca (400) and Alk (10.5dKH). SP was down 0.001 from where it was the day before (currently 1.023, was 1.024). This is because I had the drip rate too fast on my top-off system. I compensated for this so SP should not drop anymore. Everything in the tank looks good (see details below) with the exception of my xenia.

 

Here is a little background on my xenia. I just bough this frag Tuesday evening. I got it for free from the LFS because they were taking down a large tank and setting up 3 smaller ones with the contents. I happen to be there when they were removing some xenia (most stuff had been moved by now), so I got it for nothing. I took it home and 15 minutes later I started the assimilation process (slow drip into a container for 2 hours). I added it to the tank, replaced 1 gallon of SW and that was it for the night.

 

Wednesday the xenia did not pulse at all – It looked limp, unhealthy, and a bit discolored. I tried different currents by moving a PH closer/further away from it over a period of a few hours – It didn’t seem to make a difference. Before I retired for the evening, I forgot to turn the PH back on so for approximately 18 hours, the only circulation in the tank was from my AC HOB Mini.

 

Thursday evening I noticed that I forgot the PH off so immediately plugged it back in. The xenia looked the same – no change. This was also when I first noticed the smell coming from the tank. So my question is, do you think the addition of the xenia caused this? It doesn’t look dead but it doesn’t look that great either? I counted my snails and hermits to make sure they were all there – all seem fine. Anyhow, I almost removed the xenia but I noticed that it had already attached itself to the LR I put it on so I thought this has to be a good sign right?? Note that it does extend when the lights are on but the polyps do not look good and do not pulse at all. The trunks look a bit swollen as well.

 

Any thoughts or suggestions folks?

 

Tank specs:

7 Gallon Bowfront

32w CSL 50/50 Retro

AC Mini HOB filter with sponge only (changed weekly).

1.5” LS bed

7 pounds LR (considering adding 2 more pounds)

This tank cycled in 5 days and Nitrate has never been higher than 2mg/l in the past month.

I had a brief algae bloom about a month ago but my clean-up crew took care of that quickly.

RO/DI water used for top-off and mixed with IO for weekly 1 gallon water change.

 

3 Astria snails

5 red-leg hermits

2 red mushrooms, one large and one small (both LR hitchhikers)

Small Candy Coral frag

Star Polyps ###

Small Xenia frag

 

Tank looks great, tests fine, smells bad! I will test everything again tonight.

 

Thanks for any help/info

Shane

 

EDIT: I forgot to added that I started dosing B-Ionic alk/Ca daily 6 days ago.

[hhasty79]

Xenia is tough stuff. It's probably just stressed out; you didn't give it much of a chance to relax, moving it around and changing currents all over the place. As for the smell, it slimes worse than a creep colony when it's unhappy. If you handle it, notice your hands probably smell the same way :x

 

Let it settle down and stop touching things

 

If it's really dead, it'll disintegrate kinda quickly.

[FlyGTI]

That's absolutely right. Xenia colonies stink like you wouldn't believe. It's nearly impossible to get the smell gone from your hands.

 

You didn't mention what you were dosing your tank with, but I've also heard that xenia likes the periodic addition of iodine. You dosing any of that? It might make it chill out a little bit.

 

Others here will have better info on that than I do, although I know that Preuss' Animal House in Lansing, MI, had a xenia tank that they were putting capfuls (literally, capfuls) of Kent Iodine into, and the tank looked superb. Korbin, do you remember that tank?

 

Give the xenia a while to relax. It just takes a little time.

[tinyreef]

check your pH.

 

is there decent water flow in the tank. one hob may not be enough depending on the aquascaping.

 

i also second the iodine but would suggest lugol's instead (just higher strength/concentration). here's a link to a very cheap source of lugol's (versus the ols and lfs).

 

http://store.yahoo.com/herbhealers/lugolsiodine.html

 

how about sulfide? smell like rotten eggs? any surface scum on the water?

[sgoodine]

Thanks for the replies hhasty79, FlyGTI.

 

Tinyreef, my pH was 8.3 when I checked last night. It is usually around 8.1 in the AM.

 

As I described in my original post, water flow was limited for approximately 18 hours.

 

I do not currently dose iodine (Farley new tank so I wanted it to stabilize a bit before I mess with the water chemistry too much). I do however dose 2 part B-Ionic. It indicates that it adds essential trace elements, etc. that are removed by protein skimming and coral use. Does anyone know if iodine is one of them? If it is, I'm guessing that the concentration is very low?? I do a weekly 1 gallon water change so I was hoping that this would be enough for a small xenia colony. If it isn’t, I'll have to start dosing iodine I guess. I don't currently have a test kit for this. Thanks for the lugol's web link.

 

sulfide (H2SO4)?? I don't have a test kit for this either but my guess no.... The smell is more like that of a tank that is not well maintained. Or a "dead" smell if you will. Perhaps this from the xenia being stressed as hhasty79 and FlyGTI have pointed out.

 

I am just worried that this will progress into a real problem that could risk other corals, etc. in my tank. So I guess I will watch the tank closely over the next few days and leave the xenia where it is?? Or should pull it out if it doesn't look better by tonight???

 

Thanks again.

[jburke30]

Originally posted by sgoodine

sulfide (H2SO4)?? I don't have a test kit for this either but my guess no....  The smell is more like that of a tank that is not well maintained.  Or a "dead" smell if you will.  Perhaps this from the xenia being stressed as hhasty79 and FlyGTI have pointed out.

 

I am just worried that this will progress into a real problem that could risk other corals, etc. in my tank.  So I guess I will watch the tank closely over the next few days and leave the xenia where it is??  Or should pull it out if it doesn't look better by tonight???

 

Thanks again.

 

Hydrogen Sulfide will have a rotten egg smell (just like the sewers in a big city). It usually comes from too much anerobic activity in your sand bed.

 

However, the smell your describing doesn't sound like Hydrogen Sulfide to me. Cynobacteria can cause a nasty sweet-acrid smell if it get's bad (as well as some micro-algae).

 

I don't have any experience with Xenia, but if you think it's a suspect I would move it to a different tank before it starts decaying and polluting your nano.

 

Just my 2 pennies.

[hhasty79]

I would leave the xenia unless it really dies. that is, turns to mush. It can look real bad and still recover suddenly within a day or so.

 

-h

[sgoodine]

Thanks for the help and suggestions. The smell has gone away and the xenia is still alive. It doesn't look much better though. I'm going to try to find a test kit for iodine later today.

[Dave ESPI]

Add an airstone. Im almost positive its a disolved O2 issue.

FWIW, 2 months is a break away point for most tanks...

Xenia has a sweet yet putrid odor anyway.... could it be you are just smelling that?