Aquarium Smelling Terrible

My 10 gallon planters aquarium has been smelling well..like a fish tank. That earthy, swampy smell. About 2 weeks after reaquascaping my tank, I began to notice a strange odor when I would walk in the room. The problem is, its a guest room. There are a couple possibilities: it could be the horn wood rotting in the tank, or the detritus built up deep under the substrate. Is there anything I could do besides water changes to fix the smell?

 

Would you say it smells like an earthy-moss like smell? Like dirt in a forest after rain?


If so, it's a sign your aquarium is maturing and is healthy, and that's very good.

Plants can heavily contribute to this smell, so if your tank is overrun with duckweed and plants, you could give them a trim.

Water changes will generally get rid of the smell too.

 

If this it is not just a question of the tank maturing as CanadianJoeh mentioned in the previous post, then check to see any other signs of something unusual happening in the tank like excessive algae growth, rotting leaves on plants or an oily water surface?

If so, then you probably have a high NO3 level, which is strange, as duck weed should absorb the NO3.
Do you have adequate ventilation of the water? i.e. if duckweed has covered the surface of the water, then there will be minimal gas exchange at the water surface i.e. O2 and CO2 so you need to remove some.

 

Activated.carbon should help with smells.

 

I'd do a water change and add some activated carbon.

 

Another solution is adding Purigen to the filter.

 

Could there be a possiblity of a dead snail somewhere?

 

Possible I guess.

 

I didn't realize purigen helps with smell issues. Bonus.

 

I didn't realize purigen helps with smell issues. Bonus.

It's also easily rechargeable.