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View Full Version : So, my house smells like a sewer...



SDMike
02-02-2004, 10:43 PM
I got talked into going up to Jeff's Sat. I just traded my truck in on a BMW, so I volunteered to drive. (mistake #1). Got to Jeff's in about 1.15 cruising with traffic.

Got there, saw these neat boxes of Tonga/Kaelini rock (30kg/66lb). Hmmm, $2.50/lb or $2.75/lb in his bins. I bought a box full of LR...

Got it home, stuck it in my tank...

OHMYGAWD! The smell! My house smells like a sewer overflowed.

There's SO much LR in my tank that there's really not much room for anything else.

Nalbar (Warren) and I built a sump/fuge last Sat so I'm about to have a sump darn near as big as my 29gal main tank. The sump's 12"W x 30"L x 16" tall with a water height of 12" or so. I figure I'll have enough room down there to keep some of the LR in the sump. To give credit where credit's due, Warren is the one that built the sump, I was the go-fer. All I gotta do is wait till next weekend to install the darn thing.

I've been changing out 3-5gal/day since Sat PM. The water started out this seriously nasty brown color. Its gotten to where its only yellow. I still can't see more than 2-3" into the tank right now...

I'm planning on another 5-ish gal water change tomorrow AM to get rid of some more of that nasty yellow water. If you forget to flush the john in the morning, you'll have a pretty good idea what this started out as... All I gotta say is "thank God I'm single!" If there were a SO, she'd be having a cow right now.

Did I mention that my house smells like a sewer? I just got a whiff of the pungent air over here at the computer. Ugh!

I sure hope its worth this!

So, if you're thinking about buying uncured LR from ANYONE, please learn from my goof and do the curing out in the garage where you don't have to smell it!

Intelligence is learning from your own mistakes.
Wisdom is learning from someone else's mistakes.

Mike

Acoustic
02-02-2004, 11:33 PM
While I understand how much it must suck to have your home smell that way...................I will not feel bad for you as I am driving to work in my truck. One day I will have a nice car. One day.

SDMike
02-03-2004, 09:39 AM
Originally posted by Acoustic
While I understand how much it must suck to have your home smell that way...................I will not feel bad for you as I am driving to work in my truck. One day I will have a nice car. One day.

Just because I was weak and got rid of a perfectly good F150 for a Beemer doesn't mean much. I'm single, no credit cards, etc. so why the heck not?

I did another 5+ gal water change this AM. The water's looking clearer already. I have that 12gal Rubbermaid container stinking to high heaven still so I can't tell if the tank smells better or not.

Mike

FishProf
02-03-2004, 01:03 PM
Also - start skimming! [i.e., put your protein skimmer to work, it'll halp you get rid of the die-off].

SDMike
02-03-2004, 01:09 PM
Originally posted by FishProf
Also - start skimming! [i.e., put your protein skimmer to work, it'll halp you get rid of the die-off].

That's great, but I have to stand next to the darn thing to keep the bubbles from overflowing onto the wall/floor/stand. My CPR BakPak is kicking out so much stuff that I can't start it and leave it for more than 30sec at a time!

I've got some rubble in a Rubbermaid tote. I've managed to get it not stinking by changing out all the water twice now. I'm tempted to do the same to my big rock 'cause it seems easier... Just dump and the nasties go away. The problem is that I don't have enough heaters.

Mike

FishProf
02-03-2004, 01:11 PM
Drill a small hole in the collection cup, silicone in a 1/4" airline, drain to a bucket.

SDMike
02-03-2004, 10:53 PM
I'm draining the main tank, putting the LR into either buckets or Rubbermaid containers with PHs moving the water around.

Once I get all the brown water out, I'll re-fill with fresh saltwater and try this cycling/curing thing again.

The thing that made me decide to try this route is the LR rubble I had in the first Rubbermaid container that no longer stinks. It smells like the bottom of the ocean, but not like the bottom of a septic tank.

I'll let y'all know how it goes in the next few days.

Mike

Special thanks to Ofer (fishprof) for donating 15gal of Scripps saltwater! Stupid me ran out of salt mix...

Acoustic
02-03-2004, 11:48 PM
That stuff must be really bad to do all that work. Good luck!

SDMike
02-04-2004, 08:56 AM
Originally posted by Acoustic
That stuff must be really bad to do all that work. Good luck!

That's what I'm thinking. If everyone gets this smell, I'd say we'd have a lot more "brand new, used 1 week" stuff for sale...

Mike

kim92111
02-04-2004, 11:07 AM
This may sound stupid, but for a 29 gallon tank, why not just remove the rock, take it outside into a large tank and let it cure now. I'd imagine that you can run a pump running in the garage. Also, you can flush out any detritus before hand.

SDMike
02-04-2004, 11:11 AM
Originally posted by kim92111
This may sound stupid, but for a 29 gallon tank, why not just remove the rock, take it outside into a large tank and let it cure now. I'd imagine that you can run a pump running in the garage. Also, you can flush out any detritus before hand.

That's basically what I'm doing. I decided that I couldn't live with the stench and am running PHs on a few buckets with the LR in them.

Mucho better.

Mike

FishProf
02-04-2004, 11:25 AM
hey Mike,

The three 5-gal buckets were still there in the morning ... They are still there if you need them.

FP

SDMike
02-05-2004, 09:41 AM
Well, two of the Rubbermaid bins are doing OK. There's not much brown stuff in the water, the only smell is that of the bottom of the sea.

The keg holder bucket is another story. It started out OK yesterday AM when I changed out the water again. By the end of the day, it was stinking again.

I changed out all the water in the big bucket again this AM. Nasty, brown, stinky water. Think of the most stagnant pond you've ever smelled and you have an idea what this water smelled like.

I changed all the water in the main tank yesterday PM too. Its been being skimmed with nothing coming out of the skimmer. There was about 1.5-2" of nasty water left in the bottom of the tank, so this smells just a bit. I'm hoping that with a little time and a filter that's supposed to be coming from VA, it'll go away soon.

I'm thinking that as soon as Nalbar and I get together and install my newly built sump, that I'm going to put in the LR rubble and some of the other pieces into the tank and sump.

Mike

MarLooney
02-08-2004, 10:25 PM
that happened to a tank of mine. elgordoinavw and MFR saw it. it was horrible. most of the corals in there died. the others were nursed back to good condition in my display tank. i had a large rock in a 20gal with little filtration. the rock was covered with a dead brown sponge. i had to take it outside three times and rip away at the sponge and hose it down... it made me wanna puke. it was so bad i gave up on the 20 and put everything in my display tank. the water is very clear. the nasty rock is at the bottom and it seems as though it's not causing any problems.