Loaches Online Forum

Hey all. Havent been around online for a while. Personal things. Hope all is well. I took down my planted tanks last year and no more Exodons. Still have my Corys though. Currently im running a 125 with peacefull SA Cichlids. The main fish are a wonderful pair of Uaru. Wonderful fish.
The stink water. Dunno what it is and if i ever knew dedicated hobbyists its on the Loach forum. The water to me smells like Salami. Its just a stink a deep smelly stink. I do 40-50% changes weekly as always. Im religeos with water changes. Latley ive been doing bi weekly 40-50% with no change. Within a small amount of time the water stinks again.
The tanks a 125 gallons with no lid, i just have some glass peices on top but its basically open. Im running 2 Eheim canisters. a 2215 and a 2213. A 300 watt heater. I had the tank loaded with Malaysian Driftwood but removed it thinking maybe some of that was causing the stink but no its back soon after a water change. Now it has a thin layer of sand,river rocks and some slate.
In the tank are Two adult Uaru and 2 Juviniles 5 Congo Tetras,5 Brass Tetras,1 Geophagus Alphirons<sp> 1 Keyhole Cichlid,1 Aqueidens Matae, 1 Medium Angel,1 Cteptoma<sp>, 2 Bleeding Hearts(Old guys gotta be a record), 1 Guinicara, 1 Butterfly Characin, 1 Loracia and about 25 Corys.Ammonias at zero and PH is neutral. I did a water change yesterday and today the water smells like Salami. The filters were just cleaned 2 weeks apart and the drifwoods gone. All the fish are eating fine all happy healthy with no signs of crisis whatsoever. Any clues? Me and the dog cant take much more of this!

How is the algae growth on the tank walls? I find that when I clean my very algae-encrusted brook tank, the earthy smell off the algae fills the flat. Salami? That might need special attention.

Add new charcoal for a start.

The driftwood would have been my guess, too. I had a stink problem in one of my tanks a while back, the filter pads would come out stinking like crazy and the wood would stink. I eventually removed the wood and changed the fiter at the same time--no more problems. I guess the wood was rotting. I had a biowheel so it didn't ruin my cycle. I don't know what to say other than, are you certain there is nothing in the tank that could be rotting? Did you go through all the gravel and everything? Dump out your filter to see if there is something in there?

A while back probably a year ago or so I bought this plastic castle ruin thing to give shelter for some of my fish. Oh My did that STINK it took me awhile to figure out what it was but everytime I even attempted to open the lid or do anything near the tank the stench was overwhelming. As soon as I took it out it a couple hours later the water smelled normal again.

I did another small water change today and added some Fresh carbon. As of now if i stick my nose right where the fliter outlet is i can smell it but on the side with the spraybar i cant. I took off the air pump last night and it did get better. Maybe the bubbles were carrying the stink into the air in the room? Mark a while back i think it was you said you found a way to get carbon real cheap in bulk. Remember that? Care to share again?