# Other Aquarium Forums > Fish Care, Nutrition and Water Management >  Aquarium water smells like Sulphur?

## Wolfgangs246

Hi Bros,

Today I found that my tank water is giving off a sulphur smell. Does anyone know what might be the cause of this? The tank water I introduce is dechlorinated with Seachem Prime and has been aged for 3-4 days before being added to the tank. 

1/2 of the filter media was changed 3-4 weeks ago and I recently added a second powerhead which doubles as an aerator. 

Occupants of the tank are just CRS shrimp, several pieces of driftwood, and meshes of moss. 

Anyway ideas what might be causing the problem?

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## vinz

Means something is rotting really bad in your tank. You're probably smelling hydrogen sulfide. *Remove shrimp ASAP. The hydrogen sulfide will kill them soon.*

If you have substrate, poke at several spots and see if bubbles are released. If there are bubbles and they smell like sulphur when they reach the surface, it means your substrate has gone anaerobic (no oxygen) and is bad bacteria is decomposing it and producing the gas.

Other places to check (open/take out and smell), but unlikely, is your filter media, the moss meshes (rotting stuff trapped under the live moss), the wood (stuff under the wood, or if you have plants on them, could be under the plants). Usually not these things as they are exposed to moving water and oxygen.

If it's any of these things, you need to remove them quickly. Substrate cannot be re-used any time soon. You will need fresh substrate.

Substrate become anaerobic if there are no plant roots to provide oxygen to it. If you don't intend to plant anything in the substrate, then I suggest you use an inert, non-organic, un-fertilised substrate. Such as sand or gravel. These are less likely to get anaerobic unless they are very deep and if they do, usually not so badly so quickly.

Depending on what substrate you have, you could possibly dry it out and reuse in the future, but with plants. Make sure you REALLY dry it becom keeping, like baked under the sun kind of dry.

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## Wolfgangs246

Thanks for that advice Vinz, this is gonna be problematic cause it's a 3ft tank and all I have on standby is a 2ft tall tank. Also there is a large population of occupants with CRS and BDS of various age and grades. :-( This move is probably going to kill a few of them. 

Is there anyway I can save the tank now? Plant a few plants or something? It's a desperate suggestion I know, but I need time to setup the new tank and get a filter system running and etc. If I throw the shrimp into a newly setup tank the initial nitrogen cycle will probably wipe them out.

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## vinz

If you have not removed the shrimp yet, chances are there will be deaths by the time you get home tonight. I don't think you can do anything to save the tank now.

My suggestions:
- Get a bottle of anti-ammonia/ammonium/nitrite like Seachem Ammo-Lock AmGuard or Seachem Prime (first is better for this situation).
- Start up the new tank, treat the new water with above products. And also with anti-chlorine and anti-chloramine.
- Your filter is probably not the cause, so you can drain the filter of the old water, leave the bio-media alone, but rinse out the other mechanical filtration media.
- Use the filter on the new tank.

IMPORTANT that you treat the water with anti-chlorine/chloramine BEFORE you let the water touch the filter. The chlorine/chloramine will kill the good bacteria. Ammo-Lock AmGuard and Prime will prevent poisoning by ammonia/ammonium/nitrite during the new cycling.

Cross fingers that the change in water conditions don't take out too many shrimps.

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## Wolfgangs246

Ok I got home today and there aren't any visible deaths. I've checked under the meshes of moss and so far none of them demonstrate any major signs of decay or decomposition. 

Anyway someone recommended that if I need a CRS friendly environment in a hurry, I can use benibachi soil almost immediately after a quick rinse. Can anyone provide any confirmation on this? I've prepared a tank already but am holding off on doing the transfer until I have bought the substrate and have a positive environment to transfer them into. 

Any advice on this would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

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## ZackZhou

good luck wolf gang!  :Smile:

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## Wolfgangs246

OK as a quick update, setup an emergency tank and introduced benibachi substrate and water. Will monitor params over night and if look good will intro duce commandos tomorrow with matured filter system. Lost another 2 shrimp today. Think I've been surviving on borrowed time.  :Sad:

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## eviltrain

All the best for your rescue mission!

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## ahhian

all the best!  :Very Happy:

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## Wolfgangs246

Thanks bro's for all the well wishes. 

Interim tank has been setup, commandos have been sent in and after 4 hours no deaths nor adverse reactions. In fact they seem quite happy. Emergency Evacuation commencing in earnest. So far only one casualty of a mid-age CRS. For now, rest of the refugees seem active and vibrant. Water parameters are being kept within acceptable levels.

Point of interest: It's bloody hard to net close to shrimps including babies when they have the length and breadth of a 3ftX1.5ft tank to run and hide in. It's not an exercise for impatient people. I've been doing it with my GF for close to 3 hours and I think we've caught at least 150 shrimp and are less than half done.  :Knockout:  I need a nap. :-p

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## eviltrain

Haha. I guess you have more then 300 shrimps in your tank now. This thread is good for those who have the same problem. Most of the tank setup for soil height is kept 5~6 cm. Anymore then that will create the same problem bro wolfgang had. Especially those without any rooted plants.

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## Wolfgangs246

I dislike being a negative example! :CRY:

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## eviltrain

Never mind la. If you don't go through it, you won't get to learn too. XD

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