my tank smells funny?
 

My 35 gal tank smells a little funnyhttp://www.fishlore.com/fishforum/im...s/dontknow.gif. Its hard to explain but it usually has a normal lite fish tank smell now it is a little stronger. My water params are 0 nitrite, 0 ammonia, 10 nitrate. I have 3 guppies, 2 danios, 5 corries, 5 ghost shrimp, 1 snail and 5-6 or so guppy fry (1week old). I do partial water changes of 15% every week. I still have some brown diatoms (algae) but nothing else visible. Any idea whats going on??

It might just be a strong "fishy" smell, both of my tanks have it.

It smells like fresh soil (dirt) kind of..............

You can try putting some fresh carbon in the filter, might help remove some of the odor.

i always believe in overfiltration...id kick up the filtration and that should solve the odor problem..

I have two filters already (cascade 200 and aqua clear 150) but due to the fry I have them turned down with sponges on the intake. Would that do it? Its not so much as an odor but smells kind of earthy like dirt or soil.

the earthy smell is not a huge deal..no tank should have a fishy smell.

I noticed an earthy smell in my 10 gallon when it went thru the diatom stage. That may be what you're smelling. Like Twistermom said, fresh carbon in your filters may help.

Algae creates a strong smell especially on the underside of the hood. Make sure there's none growing there. Also sometimes fish food gets lodged somewhere between the waterline and the glass where the fish can't get to it. Check to see if there's no fish food caked up somewhere.

Squeeze the sponges on the intakes out each week in old aquarium water . With sponges over the intakes,there really isn't any benefit to turning the flow down on the filters. Reducrd flow, combined with sponges that may be getting clogged,might be the culprit.
All my tanks have earthy smell. Fishy smell no.