Environmental Collapse (Smells like it)

[rhonin]

Came back from a two week trip and all my tanks looked well - my son was caring for them with long distance advice thumbs2:

On my 60g African tank, I did a 50% water change as the nitrates had climbed to the 40 range. All other parameters were good.

Next evening after getting home, I smelled something swampy....

My 60g was a bit cloudy and smelled like a stagnant swamp!

Into action!!! Fish recovery mode!!!

Did a 67% water change - that helped...
Pulled both AC70's apart and found both, yes both units were full of an very smelly gooey browning colored bacteria(?).
Cleaned these babies in a bucket of water I pulled from my 100g.
The gravel was fairly clean (my mbuna's love to excavate).

Now mind you, all the fish looked and acted healthy!

Tested water - ammonia 0, nitrites 0, nitrates 20, pH 8.0
fyi: this tank has been running great for about a year.

Day 2: another 50% water change, added activated charcoal to one filter and extra media to the other (pulled from my 100g).

What has me stumped is how can my tests be good, the fish healthy, but the water smelling like a sewer?

Suggestions? I'm at a loss....

[Lindsey]

Escaped gases from the gravel when you did your water change, maybe? That sounds nasty, I'm sorry you have to deal with this!

[Lady Hobbs]

Actually, the only time my tanks ever smelled bad was when my nitrates had climbed up like that. That and the nasty filter media might have been it.

[Lab_Rat]

If I had to guess, I'd bet your son overfed your fish unintentionally. The excess was likely pulled into the filters and created the lovely brown sludge. Rotting fish food would smell nasty.

[rhonin]

Escaped gases from the gravel when you did your water change, maybe? That sounds nasty, I'm sorry you have to deal with this!

My average gravel depth is >1/2 inch - with the mbuna's digging like they do, did not bother to go deeper. Bugger excavate like crazy!

Did a gravel cleaning wjile I was at it and really did not see anything substantial.

I'll keep looking - may deconstruct the rock piles - noticed that overnight my nitrates had climbed back above 40...

Hmmm......

[HeatherB]

When I first started fishkeeping, my tanks smelled, I knew nothing of cycling, so maybe the nitrates have something to do with it. Maybe take up your decor and do a large water change and gravel vac?

Are you sure no fish died? Or jumped ship and are like, behind the tank deceased? That would be my next guess. If you already cleaned your filters...

[rhonin]

HeatherB - you hit the nail on the proverbial head thumbs2:

As I have a school of mbuna in this tank, I started the task of counting heads. For those who have a school of varying colors of mbuna, and they all think it's feeding time when you get near, you know what I mean.

It's a TASK! (Ooooo... look at all the pretty colors)

Anyway, I digress....

Came up one large yellow male short. Had 5 yellow, counted 4.

Dismantled the lace rock piles.
Pile A - no joy.
Pile B - ugh!
Looks like he go trapped during a pecking contest and then was bludgeoned to death. Looks to have been dead about a week....

Removed body, another 50% water change, rocks cleaned and re-arranged (bigger openings) and added a good dose of Nutrafin Cycle for stability.

Now it is just a matter of keeping a close eye on things and doing water changes frequently till all is well..

Tests: Ammonia - <0.25 ammonia, nitrites 0, nitrates 5, pH 7.9
Looks like a quick cycle with fish...

:22:

[Lindsey]

Sorry for the loss, but I'm glad you figured out what was wrong!

[Crispy]

combo of dead fish and excess food turning to sludge in your filters. easily fixed. :)

[Piscine]

Yikes! I read the Prime bottle wrong when I first started fishkeeping and overdosed....ALOT. My entire house smelt like a sulfur for at least a week.

[rhonin]

Thanks to everyone for their suggestions and questions! thumbs2:

This morning the tank looks much much better and is on the way to a full recovery.

Testing has me back at 0 ammonia and just a trace of nitrite.

Time to put my Fish Recovery Firefighter suit away and get back to the normal arduous task of fish watching.... :19:

[Northernguy]

That is one reason I remove the decor from the tank every once in a while.It gives me a chance to clean the uglies off of everything,I get to clean all the substrate,and I get to find any long lost fishies.
Glad you got your tank sorted out.thumbs2:

[HeatherB]

Thank Thank you!!! Sorry about your fishy though!

[rhonin]

Been a couple of days now since the dead fish tank smell incident...

Water and fish doing fine.
Nitrate jumps have tapered off. They did a 40 day one, 40 day two, 20 today and I suspect they will keep going down and the system fully recovers and all traces of the incident go away....

Lesson learned: work through all the "standard" causes then look elsewhere when you have problems.

Thx all!!
thumbs2: