Cat peed in my aquarium smell

jeffareid · 09-26-2006, 10:34 AM

I'm the one that just cleaned out the aquarium and used just 1/2 gallon of the old water. It's a 55 gallon aquarium with just one clown loach.

It was fine for the first 2 days, but now the room smells like cat pee (no cats though), so I'm doing a large water change. I assume this is an ammonia rise, but with just one fish what is the source of the ammonia?

Any advice on what to do to keep this in check?

update

Did an 80% water change, using Amquel and Novaqua during the refill. The fish isn't showing any signs of stress. Smell isn't as bad but there's still some smell.

The new gravel had a plastic smell when I opened the bags, but I assume this odor would have been immediately noticable in the water.

Getting an ammonia test kit, plus more ammo-carb to deal with this.

Jay · 09-26-2006, 01:19 PM

Since the beneficial bacteria which cycle the aquarium are not free floating,
the 5 gallons of old water did not do much for you.

The five gallons of water did however probably contain a lot of organic matter which is now breaking down and producing an odor.

Run some activated carbon in your filter for the odor.

The tank is going to need to go thru a complete cycle.

Read the sticky articles on tank cycling.

Save your money on the ammonia reducing resins. Let the tank cycle and use charcoal and water changes for the odor.

Regards,
Jay

jeffareid · 09-26-2006, 02:01 PM

Quote:

Since the beneficial bacteria which cycle the aquarium are not free floating, the 5 gallons of old water did not do much for you. The five gallons of water did however probably contain a lot of organic matter which is now breaking down and producing an odor.

It was 1/2 gallon, now that I've done 2 80% water changes, it's virtually gone. I replace the ammo carb in the external filter. The filter has 3 chambers, bottom has course filter and round ball for bacteria. I fill the middle chamber with ammo carb, top chamber is round balls and fiilter floss. Flow is from bottom to top.

Quote:

ammonia reducins resing

The Amquel and Novaqau also get rid of the chlorine and chlorimenes in the water.

Smell is gone for now. I got some ammonia test strips, and it's less than .25 ppm, hard to read the strips, as there's darkness and color involved. Color is closer to 0 ppm, but darkness is almost .25 ppm. Need to get a better testing kit for later. Hopefully the fresh ammo-carb will help out. May switch to 2 chambers of ammo carb in the external filter.

Jay · 09-27-2006, 07:32 AM

Quote:

Any advice on what to do to keep this in check?

When you asked for help, and explained what you did, I must have missed the part where you explained that you kept your bio filter in tact by not cleaning the bio balls in your filter.

Still a radical unbalancing of the tank will usually get you a reaction

I'm glad everything is working out for you.

Regards,
Jay

Edit: I was just re reading your other thread "the one that wanders between cyano and loaches" Somehow I did not put the two together.

Cyanobacteria "STINKS" you can smell it in the entire room where the tank is. I own a cat, and I am here to tell you it is much much worse.

ahill3780 · 09-29-2006, 11:10 PM

How much current is in the tank?

jeffareid · 10-01-2006, 08:36 AM

Quote:

How much current is in the tank?

I assume you mean water flow and not electricty. The two AquaClear 50 undergravel filters flow 200 gallons per hour each, and the Eheim Ecco 2232 flows 105.6 gallons per hour, so it's a total flow of 505.6 gallons per hour (55 gallon tank).

Update. the smell is still gone, but I'll continue doing partial water changes just to be safe.