Rotten Egg Smell Help

[nicreef]

Hi,

My iq 5 has been up and running for the last year + without problems when all of sudden it started to have this rotten egg smell. I have recently added the red sea biological nitrate and phosphate reducer beside which i dint do much changes.

Luckily, i have been in the process of cycling a new tank so i can decomm my old 1 fast but i am wondering what happened? as i do not want this to happen to my new tank.

Another question is the live rock in the old tank are now transferred to a pail. Can i add them into my new tank and let it cycle along with it? or should i just get new LR?

[vtecintegra]

The rotten egg smell is gas from bacteria that are growing without using oxygen. My best guess is that the red sea additive caused the oxygen using bacteria to rapidlly mulitply until oxygen levels got low enough to cause the non oxygen using bacteria (anerobic) to rapidly mulitply and produce the hydrogen gas you smell. Using the rock should not be a problem if you let it cycle in the new tank. The oxygen using bacteria (aerobic) need to take back over. Hydrogen gas can easily kill your tank life so give it some time like you would a normal cycle (few weeks).

[nicreef]

Hi thanks, read about it with the help of google. guess you are right.

cool glad to know i wont need to buy that much new rock...wanted to use a overflow system and use my old iq 5 as a sump but the smell killed the idea haha.

Thanks

[vtecintegra]

Ok, good luck with your tank.