rotten eggs smell !?

[jacquisunderland]

Hi everyone..
I am currently doing research on the presence of hydrogen sulphides in aquariums and how best to treat or prevent an outbreak... its very, very common and you know if you have it as you will have an overwhelming smell of rotten eggs, often hhappens suddenly, even after cleaning out and a water change your water will white cloud over very quickly. If you have suffered from this.. how and what did you feed your turts.. how did you deal with it.. and how did you treat it. Please let me know and share your experiences with other keepers.. xx

[turtlegirl]

never experienced this with my turtles because they all have bare bottom tanks. However I have heard of it happening in fish tanks, usually those with sand or fine gravel substrate. Basically organic material gets buried in substrate where anaerobic (don't need oxygen) bacteria break protein matter down into sulphur compounds including hydrogen sulphide gas. When substrate is disturbed, maybe by turtle digging, the gas is released causing bad smell.

Hydrogen sulphide is highly toxic to all life. It is VERY IMPORTANT if you have sand substrate to use a siphoning method that disturbs and goes right to the bottom of the sand every week to remove decaying organic matter and release any small gas bubbles before they accumulate. Some people attach a small plastic fork to the end of their siphon tube to comb through sand