Sulfur/Rotten Egg Smell in tank?

[jnelson]

Noticed something strange today when checking out my tank.

 

My 30G seems to have a slight sulfur/rotten egg smell coming from it. It is not a very pungent smell that is noticeable from far away, only when you are up close and smelling right on the surface. My livestock do not seem to be affected (corals are fine and fish are behaving normally).

 

Current livestock are:

- Tomato Clown

- Purple Dottyback

- Bicolor Angel

- Three Stripe Damsel

- YWG/Pistol Shrimp pair

- Assorted snail/hermit CUC

- Softies/LPS

 

I feed once daily with dry food (half/half with New Life Spectrum pellets and Cyclopeeze flake) and do water changes once a week (5 gallons). I run carbon/FF/Purigen. I change the floss twice a week, the carbon once a month, and rinse the Purigen once a month in RO.

 

Any ideas on where this is coming from and how to change it? I noticed it today for the first time, but I can't say for sure when it started.

[brandon429]

must have pics showing full tank shot and the substrate, looking for black pockets of h2so4

hydrogen sulfide

 

how old is sandbed

[jnelson]

Sand was new dead sand (approx 30-40 lbs, 1.5" deep) added when the tank was first started back in late June. It was seeded with the live rock from my old tank plus about 1 cup of live sand from that tank as well.

 

I will get some pictures later when the lights come on. I don't see any black pockets on first glance.

 

Should I run some fresh carbon or is that not going to help?

 

EDIT: The only new changes I've made to the tank are an addition of a 2 pound piece of dry rock about a week ago.

[metrokat]

Did you stir up the sand bed by any chance?

[jnelson]

Hey Kat!

 

Nope, haven't stirred it up myself, but I do have sand sifters (nassarius snails and the pistol shrimp) doing it pretty regularly. I've had the nassarius snails since I first got the tank and I got the pistol shrimp back in August.

[duderubble]

Sand bed was my first thought, too. But it doesn't seem old enough to be the source.

 

Anything possibly dead in there? Large snail like a turbo?

[jnelson]

Actually, yes.

 

I had a firefish (small, approx. 2") that went missing about two weeks ago. It wasn't anywhere in the open and it wasn't anywhere around the tank (so it didn't jump) so I figured it died in the rocks somewhere. I was hoping the CUC would have taken care of it.

 

Should I try and find it at this point? Might do more bad than good if I tear up the rockwork.

[duderubble]

Actually, yes.

 

I had a firefish (small, approx. 2") that went missing about two weeks ago. It wasn't anywhere in the open and it wasn't anywhere around the tank (so it didn't jump) so I figured it died in the rocks somewhere. I was hoping the CUC would have taken care of it.

 

Should I try and find it at this point? Might do more bad than good if I tear up the rockwork.

 

 

I don't think I'd try to find it. except on the floor. But I would test the water. and do large WC if nec.

[pablom617]

Did you happen to use any prime or de-ammoniaizing chemical? I had the same sulfur smell and I couldn't figure out what it was... It was the prime.

[jnelson]

Have not used any chemicals.

 

I have my MP10 on nutrient export mode while I mix up some fresh saltwater, I'll do a water change tomorrow once that's fully mixed.

[Builder Anthony]

i wouldnt search for the dead fish but i would do water changes till it doesnt smell like that.

[duderubble]

Have you run basic Amm/Nitrite/nitrate tests?

[Builder Anthony]

if it smells like egg why even bother testing.there is oviously something wrong.a water change is called for.Doing a test after the water change might make it more senseable.

[jnelson]

I did run the basics a little while ago. 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, 10 nitrate (not higher than usual) on my API kit. 8.0 pH on my Salifert kit (a tad low but not too bad). I also have alk and calcium but since the corals don't seem to be affected, I probably won't run those.

 

Having my MP10 on nutrient export does seem to have kicked up some crap lying around so I siphoned some of that out with a turkey baster. My water's been mixing for a few hours, maybe I'll do that WC later tonight instead of tomorrow.

[wartskin]

Could it be a dirty filter sponge?

[jnelson]

Did a 5 gallon water change about half an hour ago and siphoned out a little bit more of the garbage from the sandbed/rocks. Changed out the filter floss too. The smell is still there, but much fainter than before. Let's see how it is in the morning.

[duderubble]

Crap collecting in the floss is actually a reasonable explanation.

[metrokat]

I'm with WC, till the smell is gone.

[Cintax]

Water changes and carbon.

[Lee Van Reef]

Sounds like something dead in there to me. I threw a dead/dying frag in a bucket the other day that had some saltwater during maintenance and forgot to throw it out. I put the bucket away and when i came back it REEKED of rotten eggs.

Just do a few more water changes and run some carbon.

[jnelson]

Just an update on this - everything seems to be fixed. Overall, I did three 5G water changes over the course of three days, ran fresh carbon, and have been changing the filter floss every other day since. Haven't smelled anything and my tank is looking just fine. Never found the dead firefish so I really hope the CUC ate the damn thing already.

[jlcable]

First one small dead fish like that wont make your tank smell cause your crabs will have eaten it way by now. I would manually sift sand and proceed with a 25% water change and than test the next day.... If parameteres are still off do another 25% change.... If your tank is off that bad it wont be good for your corals to have a suden change in water quality.