Smells like swamp water???

I recently got my 20tall all cycled and the fish going.Its perfect as far as ammonia and nitrites( I don't have a nitrate test kit).But it smells swampy.
I have a betta, 4 platys,a snail, 3 guppys and a weather loach.But I think it may be the excess hornwort that is making it stink.Should I pull out some of the hortwort or is it something else making the smell?
I do have a fluorescent tube plant gro light on it as well.


I did have some ammonia spikes last week and had to do partial changes for a couple days(my filter broke and had to go a few days without).But when my friend gave me the loach she also gave me a big bag of hornwort and some well cycled water to add and I think that helped

 

Unless the hornwort is brown or rotting, it should not be the problem.
I am betting you are going thru a minI cycles with the crashed filter.
I would recommend more water changes.

 

If you got water from your friends tank{cycled water} won't do you much good.The bacteria grows on substrate,plants,filter media etc.The water they gave you,if directly taken from their tank may give you false readings.Did you check your parameters before you put the water in there?

 

Welcome to Fishlore.

I agree that daily water changes, with a good water conditioner, are in order until the tank cycled.

Monitor your fish closely. Transferring water from another tank does nothing to help with a minI cycle, adds nitrates and potentially transfers disease.

As your tank has a swampy aroma, I suspect your friend's water was high in nitrates. Doing daily water changes will help with this as well.

Good luck stabilizing your tank.

 

Do you run carbon? If so, when's the last time you changed it? If I don't change my carbon regularly then my saltwater tank begins to smell like low tide if you know what that smells like.

 

I checked the water yesterday and no ammonia or nitrites.Like I said I don't have a nitrate test kit. The carbon filter is brand new so it can't be that.
The hornwort was also from her tank.She was disassembling her ten gallon and gave me most the stuff in her tank.Including the guppys, loach and hornwort.
I'll do a partial today and recheck the water..

How often does a tank do minI cycles? Is it every time I change anything? I need to add more sand on the bottom for the loach, its only about an inch of sand/gravel mix.

 

when I got my filter it came with a fine "polishing" filter that clogged up in under 24hrs hours. I removed that and within an hour the water smelt fine again.