My Tank stinks and i just cleaned it yesterday

[vertical]

i have a 29 gallon tank
1 oscar
2 parrot cichlids

the tanks smells real sour and stinky, i completly changed the water yesterday, replaced the rocks and scrubbed thhe tank, and it was fine last night now it stinks, the oscar is fairly new, and the stink started after he went in, hense the water change, well this morning it stinks again
i heard that oscars are stinky fish

help me please


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[Harlock]

i have a 29 gallon tank
1 oscar
2 parrot cichlids

the tanks smells real sour and stinky, i completly changed the water yesterday, replaced the rocks and scrubbed thhe tank, and it was fine last night now it stinks, the oscar is fairly new, and the stink started after he went in, hense the water change, well this morning it stinks again
i heard that oscars are stinky fish

help me please


vertical

Welcome to the boards! I'll address your question first: It's hard to say what is causing the stink. What are you feeding? What does the stink smell like? Is it a decaying smell, a fishy smell, a dirt kind of smell?

Now, to address some issues I see for your tank down the road. First and foremost you have a problem with tank size. A 29 gallon tank is too smal for both Oscars and parrot cichlids. Also, Oscars can be a bit on the aggressive side and I really don't see the parrots doing well with him. Also, depending on how you cleaned your tank (from what you described it sounds like it was VERY thorough) you may have set your cycle back. If you are new to fishkeeping or don't understand what I mean when I say cycle, please check out the sticky thread in the Freshwater Newbie forum entitled Cycle. Best of Luck!

 

[mooman]

Did you by any chance rinse the filter media out under tap water, or replace it at the same time that you did the cleaning? If so then you probably killed off your biofilter (the colony of bacteria that live on the surface of your filter media, and that converts rotting food and fish waste into less harmful, less smelly products). I've heard this story before, and its unsually results in a smelly tank. The food and fish waste is now rotting and creating that smell. My advice would be to do large 50% water changes every few days untill the smell goes away. You can really never go wrong with water changes. You should rarely if ever have to do a total tear down of the tank, and iff you do, then you should always try to maintain the bacteria in your filter media by rinsing it out in old tank water (water that does not contain chlorine). If any of the things we've mentioned are unfamiliar to you, then I'd advise you to do some research and find some articles (www.aquarticles.com) on basic aquarium theory. Good luck.

 

[Aries]

First and foremost you have a problem with tank size. A 29 gallon tank is too smal for both Oscars and parrot cichlids.

Agreed!!! Those fish will QUICKLY outgrow the tank. I do not know much about Oscars but I think they get between 12" and 16" (correct me people if I am wrong). The parrots get 6" to 10" (the real parrot cichlids get to about a foot long). You might get away with keeping the parrots and not the oscar. IMO, even a 29G is too small for two parrots.

As stated above, it seems like you started your cycling over again - never a good thing ime.

Smell...It does depend what you feed, how much you feed and if they eat everything. Also, please give more of a description on the smell...

Good Luck

Aries

 

[mykidsmylife]

Monday morning I go to my 40 gallon to feed and lift the hood. OH THE SMELL!! I swear it smelled like dog poo. I panicked a bit, worried about water quality. On closer inspection, I found an algea wafer sitting on the middle brace and it was the culprit. It was just fermenting away...I mean it was literally bubbling. YUCK. I removed it and all was well. My poor farlowella probably missed his midnight snack one night.

 

[pbrack]

If anyone can help me as well, I'm starting a new aquarium and added Ro/Di water yesterday and will add minerals later today. But this morning, my room STUNK! It was a really bad Fishy smell (like cooked salmon). I've got no idea what to do! The aquarium has nothing in it except for gravel + flourite, Ro/Di water, HOB filter and heater.