What does a healthy reef tank/water smell like?

[Hondo]

Hi Everyone,

I was wondering what a healthy reef tank is supposed to smell like? Or is the smell of the tank/water not indicative to the overall health of the tank.

I come from a freshwater background and I am familiar with the earthy smell that a healthy freshwater tank is supposed to smell like. Over the years, a change of smell in my tank has alerted me to various problems such as blue green algae, ammonia spikes due to an unseen dead fish, etc.

Thanks,

Sam

 

[Kensington Reefer]

A fine question!
Your tank should smell no different from the new water you use for a water change.
It should smell like an isolated pristine tropical beach.
If it smells funky, it is funky!
Time for a water change

 

[sfsuphysics]

It should smell better than the SF Bay

That said, if you smell anything "metallic" in nature, i.e. that "expensive smell" cracked heater or other similar element... that's about the only smell that I can recall. Well ok.. there's always that empty snail shell that for some reason you may think "Hmm wonder what it smells like" and it's bad enough to gag a maggot... ok maybe that's just me

 

[Marc]

It should smell better than the SF Bay

That said, if you smell anything "metallic" in nature, i.e. that "expensive smell" cracked heater or other similar element... that's about the only smell that I can recall. Well ok.. there's always that empty snail shell that for some reason you may think "Hmm wonder what it smells like" and it's bad enough to gag a maggot... ok maybe that's just me

LMAO I just did this the other day and almost puked!

 

[tygunn]

Tank smell is definitely a good indicator of what's going on. When I put my live rock in (shipped live) the die off gave the water a stank of death. Now that the cycle cleared it doesn't smell like much of anything. Maybe a slight ocean tinge.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

 

[tr1gger]

Mine smells like the beach

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[brleong]

mine smells exactly like Neptune Aquatic... and Baja Reef... thats when I knew my tank was right! it didn't smell like garlic anymore lol... (long story, dont ask)

 

[F6553066]

Interesting question. I hadn't thought about it. So what I just did was to go around and smelled my 3 tanks. No smell at all. At best you would only what maybe some salt smell. I agree with Kensington Reef.