Please Advice

[fx300]

Two weeks ago I moved into my new house and setup my aquarium. The only thing I did not turn on was my refugium. Today (two weeks laters) I turned one of its pumps on and the water smells quite bad. Should I dump all the water out from it or is it safe to use? I do see some crirtters alive but I am not sure if it is safe for my fish. Thanks for reading this post.

Fabian

Bronwsville
P.S.
After the move tank shots coming soon!

[jlam]

Well sounds like you have fish in it. I would dump it just to be safe because if there is anything in there decaying causing that bad smell you don't want it in the tank specially if the tank is small. I could kill everything really quick like.

Jason

[fx300]

Allow me to explain a bit more; my main tank is a 100g that has been running for a few years now. The refugium (20g L) has been running for a few years too but I have not had time to setup the pumps till today. The refugium after a few hours has stopped smelling bad. I know I should have done this a while ago unfortunately, putting things away and work did not allow me to put 100% on the tank.

Fabian
Brownsville

[don-n-sa]

I know exactly what smell you are talking about...kind of like rotten eggs right? I would definitly dump the water out of the fuge and mix some fresh saltwater to replace it. Saving a few bucks or fuge critters is not worth possibly losing livestock from your display.

[GaryP]

I know exactly what smell you are talking about...kind of like rotten eggs right? I would definitly dump the water out of the fuge and mix some fresh saltwater to replace it. Saving a few bucks or fuge critters is not worth possibly losing livestock from your display.

What you are referring to is hydrogen sulfide gas. It comes from deep in the sand bed. Its produced by an anaerobic (low oxygen) bacteria in the DSB called Desulfovibrio (or one of its cousins). Normally its not a problem until you disturb the sand bed such as when you are moving a tank. A good rinse of the sand bed some salt water is usually all you need to remove it. You are able to detect very small amounts of it with your nose. A lot of it get tied up in the sand bed as iron sulfide. That's the black stuff and it is inert and non-toxic. Hydrogen sulfide is a common product of any aquatic sediment and is not really an issue unless it reaches very high concentrations. You would not be able to detect those high levels because your nose stops being able to smell it over about 10 ppm in air. At 10 ppm the smell is very strong and you wouldn't even be able to be in the same room with it. I used to work with this stuff and it is pretty nasty.

As an interesting side note, iron sulfide from sediments can sometimes become geologically transformed into something most of you are familiar with... fool's gold (pyrite).

[don-n-sa]

good info Gary...but do you think he should dump the water out of the fuge or keep it?

[Gator]

dump it 2 weeks of stag water is to long

[TexasTodd]

I'd dump the water and any sand along with it.

TT

[GaryP]

Because of the fact it has been stagnant it has probably had a lot of die off. Starting fresh is probably the thing to do in this case.

No flow = no oxygen = death

[fx300]

Ouch! I never thought I had to get rid of the sand! I will first rinse the sand if that does not fix the problem next step will be to get rid of the sand. What about rinsing the sand in fresh water or should I just rinse it with salt water?


Thanks again,

Fabian

[GaryP]

Fabian,

You can rinse the sand with fresh water and that will kill just about everything. It would be about the same as starting over with new sand, basically dead. Try to get some sand from some other folks or from your main tank to help inoculate it and get it started again as an active biological sand bed.