Smelly Water

[shereezy]

Hi,

I'm relatively new to fishkeeping. I have a 45 gal community tank which has been running for 2 months now with a Aqua One CF1000 canister filter. All fish seem happy. I tend to carry out 10-20% water changes in the tank twice a week at least but tonight I've noticed a very earthy smell which I've not noticed as much before. Is this normal?

[AQUA_OBSESSION]

Do you have any live plants or driftwood in the water? What kind of fish do you have in the tank?

To add to her question, I pulled out a piece of driftwood from my tank last night to attach some Jave Fern to and I noticed that it had a pungent odor to it. Does anyone know why this is or if this is normal?

Also, some live plants that I have had black on their roots and it also had a pretty bad odor. Can anyone shed some light on this?

[rrkss]

Earthy smells are generally due to lots of benificial bacteria and algae in the tank. A healthy tank will have an earthy smell and it is normally a sign that the tank is well kept. I would not be too concerned if the fish are healthy and the water is nice and clear.