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Bad Smell



>>The other occupants of our house are claiming that my aquarium is producing
a bad smell.  Personally, I think it smells like a rainy day on an
Amazon
mudflat, but I guess I can see their point.  ...kind of like an earthy,
musty, or rotting smell

	Cyanobacteria (formerly known as Blue Green Algae) produce a chemical
called geosmin which has a very strong dirt odor.  If I remember my
microbiology -- it has been a while -- the chemical "geosmin" that they
are producing is one of the chemicals that give soil that distinctive
earthy odor.  It doesn't smell particularly offensive in small
quantities, but if you have a lot of cyanobacteria in the tank
(particularly at the top) the smell can get pretty strong.  Do you have
blue green slime at the substrate/glass/water interface?  Growing on the
plants or fixtures at the surface?  If so, that's likely the cause.

	If I remember correctly, high nitrites (with an i, not an a) produce a
really foul, old tennis shoe odor.
-- Sherman Lovell