smelly water

the bacteria in your tank is most likely out of balance. look into the bacter7

http://www.brightwellaquatics.com/products/microbacter7t.php

 

Plus 1000!!!
Some people say only a week and after that it starts to release what it absorbed back into the water. Canister filters are ok as long as you keep the media changed very often and clean. Sponges are also notorious for releasing the garbage they collect back into the water. Do you test your water at all? What are your nitrates and phosphates at?
Heidi

 

IMO the smell is there from decaying matter in the tank if you get your clean up crew and the bacteria to do its job carbon is not needed. to use carbon to take care of an odor is not getting to the root of the problem. my tank is over stocked. (read below at whats in there) my carbon is due to be changed and has been due for about a month. in other words the carbons not doing a thing but laying there and my tank doesn't have an odor. Carbon will not fix your tanks under lying problem.

 

Agree, except, GAC removes organics and with the organics, inorganic toxins bound too them. Also, GAC removes organic toxins. Your CUC can help break down some of the food, making it easier to export by other methods, but it can't "remove" the food, or bound inorganic toxins and organic toxins. The bacteria may or may not, depending on how readily they break down the organic toxins and consume organics with bound inorganic toxins. Of course, anything that consumes inorganic toxins, is not removing them from the system, unless the consumer if also removed somehow.

I somewhat agree, although, GAC will remove it as it breaks down. So, this does sort of solve the underlying problem. It may not be the "natural" solution, and by itself may not be as effective, as it could be with help from natural sources, but it is a solution and an effective one at that. For one, bacteria will colonize the GAC and consume organics bound to the surface. In doing so, the bacteria will consume various other contributors in the process and a lot of crud is therefore removed when the carbon and bacteria is removed. If the bacteria is benthic, and not pelagic and not growing on something that is removed, such as bio-pellets or GAC, all the crud they consume stays in the system. So, I'm not sure why GAC, CUCs and bacteria (also macro algae if exported) should be mutually exclusive, they seem quite nicely complimentary.

food -> break down to exportable components via CUC, bacteria, etc.. -> export via mechanical filtration.

 

I think part of the smell could be a product of your bioload. Given everything you listed over in the other thread you have a pretty full tank. All those fish, & any uneaten food is going to produce waste, and waste in turn will smell.

 

my water prams are on the money. i figured with the size of the clean up crew i have over feeding would be ok. i am going to start every other feedings to see if that helps. ive also turned off the lighting for a couple of days in case of algae. i have brown stuff all over the place so i figured id do that as well.