My shrimp tank smells awful

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Drewbacca

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Mar 20, 2019
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I've had a 10 gallon planted aquarium with a sponge filter for a little over a month, getting it cycled and ready for a new red cherry shrimp colony. The water parameters have been stable and good, and I've had some mystery and Malaysian trumpet snails in there for awhile. There's also a decently sized colony of seed shrimp in there that sprung up a couple weeks after starting the aquarium. I also put in a small Wonder Shell monthly to help supply nutrients and raise the GH for my invertebrate tank. Anyway, I finally got my shrimp in last week, with 24 cherry shrimp that I drip acclimated. My parameters have remained stable since adding them. I've had about 6 die, but the bodies were quickly taken care of by the various animals in my tank. I'm feeding them Bacter AE (1/8 scoop daily), Mineral Junkie (2-3 pearls daily), and Shrimp Dinner (1 pad daily) from Glas Garten, which is the the recommended amount of those foods that I've found online. Most people recommend less than the manufacturer amount. The food is typically gone by the evening when I head home from work. Anyway, there's been a bad smell coming from the aquarium this week. Nothing has crawled out, and I don't think it was the dead shrimp as they were consumed rather quickly. I do weekly 25% water changes and squeeze out the sponge filter at least monthly. I'm at a loss for what's causing the smell. The only new things are the shrimp and the shrimp food. Any thoughts?

Parameters
10 gallon
Temp: 74.5
pH: 7.8
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 2.5
KH: 5
GH: 13
 

Drewbacca

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Mar 20, 2019
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I have a couple possible culprits. My shrimp tank is at my work office, which is a small room. In order to keep people from turning and leaving the lights on, I've been shutting my door so that the animals can use my timed lights for their light source. As a result, there's not a ton of air circulation. There is a big vent in the room, but there's nowhere for the airflow to go. While I was working today I noticed the smell when I first got there, but after a couple hours with the door open, the smell had improved. By the end of the day I couldn't smell it anymore. So, I guess I'm going to have to leave my door open but put up some kind of sign telling people to turn my light off on days I' m not there.

One other culprit is that my bucket I use for water changes was sitting in my office too. My gravel suction tubing was in that bucket and had a small amount of water left in the tubing from my water change I did last Thursday. There seams to be a little mildew forming in the tubing too. Now, smelling directly into the bucket didn't seem to elicit any really bad odors. However, as I mentioned above I had my door open to ventilate the office. I didn't notice much of an improvement after the first couple hours, then I took the bucket and tubing outside to dry out in the open air. The smell didn't seem to dissipate from my office until after I removed the bucket. However, since the bucket itself didn't smell strongly, it may have just been a coincidence.

At this point I'm not sure which is the true culprit. I have some trial and error things I can do to help verify if either of the above two sources are the cause. For now, my water parameters seem in good shape and my animals appear healthy. My colony of seed shrimp is also thriving, unfortunately, so my water quality must still be pretty good.
 

fishorama

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Jun 28, 2006
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SF Bay area, CA
I've noticed a "tank smell" in my house after leaving for a week or 2. I think it's from lack of fresh air, it's not as bad if I leave a window open (anywhere), season permitting. I don't heat my tanks, but I've noticed it's worse in warmer weather.

My suggestions are feed a bit less & maybe add a small fan in your office. Your animals should be fine fed say, 2 or 3x a week. There will be lots of "micro-goodies" to get them though a weekend or lots longer. More food= more waste & maybe more smells.
 

FreshyFresh

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Jan 11, 2013
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West Falls NY
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Joel
Definitely feed less and do more water changes.

I have a 10g red cherry shrimp tank with guppies, snails, java moss, etc with nothing but a little sponge bubbler filter. No stink at all. I do one weekly ~90% water change on it.

Why all the stuff being added other than quality food? I feed the remnants to my flake and pellet foods to mine.
 

Drewbacca

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Mar 20, 2019
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I follow the advice from the guy at FlipAquatics. He's been really helpful in setting up and provides great products. Here's the video I've been following. Instead of decreasing frequency, I've decreased amounts.
 
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