cloudy with smell

[philolsen]

I have had my 55 gal. tank set up now for 5 weeks, it has a couple of damsels to get started. Over the past few days the water has become cloudy and has a foul odor. I did a 10 gal. water change and it helped a little, but it is not as clear as I think it should be. The filter(penguin 360) is new, about a month old, any suggestions would be appreciated. The fish appear to be fine they are active and eating and have good color.

[sergeantbiggs]

Are you using a protein Skimmer?

[philolsen]

not yet, I was planning on getting one before I add additional fish. How long before I should use one?

[Reefland]

Hi philolsen,

I think skimmers should be used on every system and added as soon as the system starts up. I also think that an oversized skimmer is better than an undersized.

[sergeantbiggs]

I didn't have my skimmer running right away and had the same problem you are running into. I added my skimmer and it cleared up, also think about getting a uv sterolizer, that helped my water clearity too.

[CSeaSee]

The smell is probably the smell of all the dissolved crap (literally) in your water!

[queenangelRIP]

hmm sounds like the same problem i had with my fresh water 20

[Poseidon]

I'll bet if you test the water you will find high NO2, this is normal for a new tank. Sometimes it can also cloud the water. I would just let it run, possibly add some FULLY Cured live rock from the LFS, it should help. Also I agree with the skimmer suggestion, they have so many benefits, I think no tank should be without one!