Somethings is wrong... smells bad, dead fish

Kasakato said:
You also have to stop adding any chemical other than Stress Coat. The alage stuff and other chemicals are doing more good then bad. Including salt. Everytime you are adding new water to your tank you need to add some kind of dechlor. In your case you can and should be adding stress coat.
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Why do you say they should be adding stress coat? I agree a dechlorinator should be used (preferably one that takes care of chloramines too, just in case), but I don't think stress coat is necessary. Isn't that the stuff with aloe in it? I don't use any conditioner, so I don't know which the best brand is that will take care of both chlorine and chloramine.

The salt won't hurt at this point, and will be a benefit to the fish if nitrites are present. After things balance out there is no need for it.

I suspect that the algae destroyer is in fact the root cause here. Definitely do as many water changes as it takes to bring ammonia down to near 0. Cutting back on feeding is also a good idea, as well as doing some thorough gravel vaccing.
 
You need to add dechlor. Chances are that his water has chlorine in it, and that needs to be treated. I have no clue as to what you are doing, but its fine by me.

And I thought that Balas dont like ANY salt in their water.

The alage stuff might of caused the problem but you never know. All you can do is water changes back to back untill your ammoina is back to 0.
 
FWIW, I had a similar problem a while back...one day I opened my tank and smelt a god-awful smell. Anyway, I did all the test and found that none of the levels were high or out of the ordinary, nothing like that. Nothing seemed wrong so Just In Case, I did a 50% water change and the smell still stayed. Still smells like that but a little weaker. my RBP's are still as healthy as ever, no diseases or any probs.
 
Kasakato said:
You need to add dechlor. Chances are that his water has chlorine in it, and that needs to be treated. I have no clue as to what you are doing, but its fine by me.

And I thought that Balas dont like ANY salt in their water.

The alage stuff might of caused the problem but you never know. All you can do is water changes back to back untill your ammoina is back to 0.
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I'm not sure if this was directed at me or the original poster. In my case, I don't need to add dechlorinator to my water. However, it sounds as though ltldrgn13 has chlorine/chloramines so yes it would be necessary to use a dechlorinator. I was just wondering why you suggested the stress coat, because I've heard it has unnecessary junk in it such as aloe vera. Unless it also neutralizes chorine/chloramines?

Some fish don't do well with salt in their water long-term, but for short term use such as during ich treatment, or to reduce the toxicity of nitrites it is not generally harmful. As I said, it certainly is not necessary but may be helpful temporarily if nitrites are present.
 
This is what I would do. I would take every single thing out of the tank and wash it in hot water put it all in the sink or the bathtub and let it soak. Then take all the fish out and do a complete vacuuming of the gravel. Wash the glass. Take at least half the water out of the tank. Put everything back in the tank and refill it. Then net the fish and put them back. Hopefully this tank is cycled. But I would monitor it carefully. I would run an airstone or two for a few days and clean the mechanical filters daily. Just rinse them. Then in a few days do another 50% water change.

I strongly suspect you are overfeeding and what you are smelling is the worms rotting. It could also be a dead fish or some thing else.

Here is a good game to play with kids. Take a paper cup and thaw the worms in a little water. Now see if you can feed the worms without any getting to the bottom of the tank. Try and figure out if everybody got one and if all the worms got eaten.

Everyday I smell my tanks, they should smell 'sweet'. When and if I smell something foul I usually take radical steps.
 
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Thank all of you for the help.. right now we are doing water changes every few days of 30-50% until things clear up... as soon as I am able we have decided to move the tank to a less lighted area of the house... but that will be a few weeks because I had a major surgery on Friday and can't do any lifting.

One other thing I wanted to clear up.. just because...lol... ltldrgn13.. me is a female.. :-P

Again Thanks and I will keep everyone posted.
 
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