# Please Tell Me This Is NOT Normal..



## SkinniMini (Mar 26, 2006)

First, I have to tell you what's been going on.
Today was the 3rd day we came home from work to our apartment filled with this horrible sour smell..I would open the windows, run the fan, use air freshener, emptied the catbox, trash, cleaned the house, you name it. 
Yes, I even smelled the fish tank water-I opened the hood & smelled it, because I heard it can smell bad, even though my water levels have been consistently good.
We keep the tank in our media/computer room, & I usually keep a close eye on it. Today I was cleaning up in here because I got rid of a chair to make room, & lo & behold..I just happened to discover..
The stink has been coming from my little co2 unit!!!
I recently bought one of those Hagen units for my 20 gal, & had run the hose thru one of those little retainer things in my gang valve that was no longer being used since I dismantled all of my bubble stuff. (no, the co2 was not actually running thru the gang valve, I was just using it to hold the hose securely in the corner) I'm thinking that the hose must have been pinched & somehow caused something to go rotten because that's what it smelled like-rotten. Like rotten eggs.
I changed out the stuff in the cannister & cut off some of the hose near the rotten smelling part.
And the past 2 days, I haven't noticed the bubbles coming up, sitting there watching it & wondering what the hell I was doing wrong this time. My plants look terrible & on top of that, I still haven't won the diatom war.
Anyway, what i'm wondering is- Is this smell normal? It can't be. It just stinks way too bad. If it's normal, the unit is out of my tank. I cannot live with that smell, plants or no plants.
Thanks for listening!


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## hoppycalif (Apr 7, 2005)

The only way to get a smell from a CO2 DIY unit is for it to leak gas into the room. Then you should smell something like bad wine or a yeasty smell, and not much of that, since those bottles really don't produce a lot of gas. Now, if you are using a CO2 mixture containing something besides sugar, water and yeast, who knows what smell could be generated.


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## SkinniMini (Mar 26, 2006)

This was bad enough to stink up my entire apartment..it was everywhere, which made it hard to pinpoint. I don't know what bad wine smells like, but this was _rotten_. I'm probably going to end up calling the fish guy & asking him, because if this stink is normal, forget it. Something that bad I won't live with, it's disgusting to have to come home to a reeking apartment, not to mention embarrassing.


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## neonfish3 (Feb 12, 2004)

I would say it's not normal at all!
The only time I remember smelling anything from my diy CO2 reactors is when I would dump them out in the sink to make a new batch. The smell reminded me of beer or one of those flavored malt beverages. I would say somehow your mix got contaminated. 
Did you have good CO2 production at first, from the batch that started smelling?
It could also be that your yeast is dead. You can check it by "proofing" the yeast. Take a 1/2 t. yeast and mix it in a small bowl with 1/4 C. luke warm water, in 10 to 15 min. you should see foaming, bubbling, growing. If not the yeast is no good.
What is your recipe for your CO2?
I think it's very strangeuke:


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## Chris S (Feb 27, 2006)

My CO2 generator smells like beer,to me. I am familiar with that rotten egg smell and i wonder if your CO2 untilwas running over the term of production. How long has it been running and had it stopped producing CO2? Other bacteria had gotten in there other than yeast at one time or another. I can imagine it being easier for it to be contaminated after the yeast production expired. But if it was contaminated while yeast was still producing, then perhaps a anaerobic bacteria took over the unit. That smell is what u smell when a CO2 unit goes bad. A healthy CO2 generator will not smell like that it should be sterilized B4 your next use of the unit.


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## Piscesgirl (Feb 25, 2004)

My Hagen mixes smelled absolutely horrible, nastiest stuff ever. You may want to try to mix your own DIY co2 if you are using their packets.


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## SkinniMini (Mar 26, 2006)

Hmmmm..
I bought the unit on 3/26, & installed it the next day-today would have been 11 days with the packets that are supposed to last a month!
I redid the whole thing last night-it says on the directions not to clean it out w/soap, but I used a Clorox clean-up solution-can't leave anything that stinky to just a rinse-& redid a fresh mix.
Tonight, I'm really not seeing any bubbles, just like it was during my stink episode..
How many bubbles should I be looking for? There aren't even any collecting on the undersides like it used to when I started it up before. As far as bubbles per minute, there are none.
As far as I know, I'm following the directions to the letter, it doesn't say to stir or shake it, to mix the contents..the first time I stirred it, & yesterday, following the fish guy's advice, I closed it up, shook it & re-installed it. 
At the time I talked to him, he thought it was weird that I wasn't getting bubbles, but then I didn't know that it was the source of that smell, or I really would have complained!

Does anybody have a home mixture that works in these Hagen units? I really like the set up & hardware, it would be cool to not have to rely on these packets.
Either way, I'm going to keep an eye on it, & if I don't see bubbles, I'm going to talk to the guy about an exchange or something.
Thanks for the replies!


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## John N. (Dec 11, 2005)

There's a hagen recipe in this 

Sounds like it smells awful 

-John N.


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## AaronT (Apr 26, 2004)

If you didn't get all of the Clorox rinsed well it may be killing of the yeast bacteria. That is why they tell you not to use soap. Almost all soaps these days are antibacterial...not a good thing, but that's another topic.

Try rinsing it very well using just hot salt water to sterilize it. One of the DIY mixes like John N. posted should smell much better. Either way it shouldn't be leaking out of the container until you open it to start a new batch.


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## SkinniMini (Mar 26, 2006)

John N, is this recipe more for the big bottles? I like this Hagen unit cuz it's small & fits nicely on the back of my tank, out of sight.
I must have had a pinched line, because ever since I redid my mixture & freed up the hose, my bubbles are coming out like never before! My fiancee is guessing like 8 bubbles/minute..
I guess my lesson learned here is to not bind the hose too tight-not to run it thru anything that restricts the flow..


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## smr (Mar 17, 2006)

I have one of the Hagen bottles like yours and have been using it since September 2003 , but it never smelt the way you describe it. Since the system works on yeast method it smells like wine. SO I am guessing that either your packets of the mixture must have become bad or something.

IN any case since the refills of the mixture are not available in Karachi where I live, I just fill up the bottle with sugar up to the first mark and then put in about a quarter tea spoon of dry yeast and fill it up with tepid tap water up to the top mark in the bottle. The system has been working fine and great with me for the past many months.

But two peices of advice. 
1) if necessary wash your bottle with hot water and salt. Do not use soap. IF you do use soap make sure to wash it with hot water thouroughly enough not to be able to smell the soap.
2) Make sure that you have a bottle through which you can use as a muck stopper and bubble counter. I just took a small 300ml soda bottle and drilled two hole in the top and put my silicone tubing through the holes (they were a tight fit and therefore I did not need any glue). Tube that is coming from the CO2 mixture is going into the water while the tube going ito the aquarium is above the water level and nearer the top. The CO2 rises out of the water and then escapes into the aquarium. This way I am able to keep the muck out of the aquarium. And the mixture I use does create quite a bit of muck. BUT IT NEVER SMELLS LIKE ROTTEN EGGS.

Good Luck.


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## smr (Mar 17, 2006)

Just went to the thread that JohnN mentions. It is great. Follow the steps and you've got it made

Good Luck


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## goldielovr (Apr 12, 2006)

*a word from a beermeister...*

The hubby, who's a yeast afficionado, says some wine yeasts may start out with just a hint of that rotten egg smell, but it should change completely in a short while. If your lines were kinked, what most likely happened is the poor little yeasties died drowning in their own muck, and it was them going to that big beer vat in da sky you smelt.

If you must use chlorine to clean (DON'T), rinse, rinse, rinse, rinse, and then rinse some more. In fact, you can't afford the water bill it'd take to get rid of it, so don't.

Yup, dead yeasties. Nasty, but not the end of the world either.


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## SkinniMini (Mar 26, 2006)

Well my saga continues..today we came home from work & the stink is back.
Here's a time lie of what's been going on..
Mar 26, bought the unit.
Mar 27 , installed it. Now I know I followed the directions correctly, I interpret blue prints for a living, so this ain't rocket science. I did run my line thru a gang valve-not the actual valve, but just the holder to keep the hose neat.
Looking at what i've marked on the calendar, i had the stink problem about 8 days after i installed the unit initially. Towards the end of that 8 days, my bubble production seemed non existent, & the stink began.
When I cleaned out the unit I used the clorox cleanup solution, but rinsed it well & remixed/reinstalled unit on April 5th.
It took a day or two, but my bubbles have really been going good-they still are, but today, about 8 days later, the stink returns. I recognized it as soon as we walked in the door.
I called the fish guy, he asked if the lid was on tight-yes, it is(duh). He said he would replace the line, but I said i would cut it first, & see what happened. I'm wondering if the gang valve put a hole in the line, but I don't see how. I used that same cut section to hook up to an airstone & see no leaks.
Either way, I'll see what happens when I come in the door tomorrow, whether it worked or not.
I'm just wondering about the 8 day intervals..does anyone have any clue as to why it seems to take 8 days(more or less) to really start to stink up my apartment?
I don't want to think about this smell when our Florida summer kicks in..ugh!


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## goldielovr (Apr 12, 2006)

My best (partially educated ) guess is, as the yeast starts to wayne, something else, something that's polluted this batch of yeast you've got, or perhaps the sugar-do you add your own sugar?-then gains strength as the yeast fades. I'm thinkin' the short solution is throw it out on day 7, but surely it's meant to last longer than that! I reckon the guy who sold it to you or the company owes you some replacement yeast stuff.


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## Bert H (Mar 2, 2004)

Why don't you mix up a yeast/sugar mixture on your own instead of using the pre-packaged stuff? You can make it to the recipe size and then just pour what you need into whatever size your container is. Or if you don't care to do that, just mix up the mixture and leave it on your back porch or garage. Anywhere, that way you'll be able to compare the smells you're encountering and see if they're the same or if it's the pre pack that stinks. I had diy for several months (2 - 2liter bottles hooked up in line), and never encountered what you describe. When I dumped them out they had a 'beer/yeasty' type of smell, but nothing noxious like you're having.


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## John N. (Dec 11, 2005)

It's so odd that you're having this problem. Maybe you do have a super small hole in your CO2 tubing, and/or the tubing is loose around where it attaches to the canister.

Even with a leak though, I can't imagine that awful of a smell..so maybe it's the yeast..? Try new Yeast like Red star brand or Fleishmanns

*For the Hagen Nutrafin Canister:*

Sugar to the bottom inside line,
Water to the top inside line,
1/8-1/4 teaspoon yeast
1/4-1 teaspoon baking soda

-John N.


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## Robert Hudson (Feb 5, 2004)

It tells you not to use soap so you use bleach instead!! OMG

Good luck



> gang valve


 There is your problem right there. Airline gang valves are not designed for C02. They leak like a sive. Why are you using a gang valve in the first place with a co2 yeast system? What else do you have connected to the line?



> I'm just wondering about the 8 day intervals..does anyone have any clue as to why it seems to take 8 days(more or less) to really start to stink up my apartment?


Slow leak


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## SkinniMini (Mar 26, 2006)

I didn't run it _through_ the actual gang valve!!! 
The gang valve has these little holders that are for holding the airlines, I think that's what pinched my airline & possibly tore it enough to cause a small hole.

And I didn't soak the thing in bleach, either! I sprayed a diluted mix of clorox cleanup into it & boom, rinsed it thoroughly.

Since I've cut off that area of hose, it seems to have helped the smell.
the unit comes with 3 months' worth of replacement packets-after this batch is done, I'll try the home mix-thanks for the tips on that!


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## hellrazar (Feb 23, 2006)

I am having the same problem I am running two of the hagen systems on my 35g and they ran fine for 4 mths and now I am having the same rotten egg smell. I don't know what caused it all of a sudden but I have been rinsing my canister and letting it sit outside to air out. this seems to help. The one i bought second started to stink first and then my older one did the same. 5 days in to a new batch.


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## SkinniMini (Mar 26, 2006)

Seeing this old thread was a surprise! 
Looking back on the whole episode, I am thinking that it was the store bought packets that are sold for the unit, combined with a small hole in my airline?
I have used the home brew mixture ever since it was mentioned on this thread, & havent had a problem since with the smell. When I rinse the cannister out, it does kind of have a sour smell like stale alcohol, nothing at _all_ like the stink that I had before when using the packets. And the home brew works better, too. It will save you _alot_ of money, & it works better when you change it out every 2 weeks, instead of a month. (thanks, John N!) I follow his recipe, combined with the directions for the unit. The only draw back has been a mild scum that forms around the outlet, & sometimes at the top of the tank, but I heard it's harmless, & I just keep the nozzle clean.


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