Water smells burnt

[BlueLineAquaticsSC]

I noticed the other day in one of my tanks that the water has a strong burnt smell to it. It only has dwarf sag, rams horns, and neocardinia in it. No filter, heater, or other tech. All of the snails are at the water line and the shrimp are crowding on a floating piece of wood, like they are trying to stay out of the water. I haven’t had a chance to test water yet, but any ideas on what’s going on, it seems pretty weird to me.

[nabokovfan87]

On 12/10/2022 at 9:22 PM, BlueLineAquaticsSC said:

No filter, heater, or other tech.

What moves the water?

[DaveO]

Do you have a light on the tank? Do you have anything plugged in on this tank? If so unplug it and see if the critters go back in the water. If they go back in then throw away whatever you unplugged.

[Tanked]

When you do the water change, does the water still smell burnt when away from the aquarium?  Is the smell "burnt" or closer to rotten egg? No matter what the cause, I would start by adding an air stone. If a water change and gravel cleaning does not solve the problem, than there is likely an electrical component nearby that is failing.

[BlueLineAquaticsSC]

There is zero electricity going into this tank, no lights, heaters, filters, air anything. Nothing is moving water, it’s as low tech as possible, which is why there is no fish. The tank itself was one that I took down and took all the fish out of, but couldn’t wrangle all the shrimp and snails so I just left it with water in it. I’m not super concerned with what happens to the tank I was just curious cause I never heard of anything like this. And to clarify it smells burnt like burning wood.

[nabokovfan87]

On 12/12/2022 at 3:59 PM, BlueLineAquaticsSC said:

There is zero electricity going into this tank, no lights, heaters, filters, air anything. Nothing is moving water, it’s as low tech as possible, which is why there is no fish.

You're going to want something to add air and move water. I wouldn't ever run a tank without at least an airstone.  It has too many benefits. 

I would be very curious if that smell goes away after you add an airstone. 

To be clear. I understand the whole "deep sandbed" style thing and wanting to have a tank with low tech or no tech.  I specifically was asking about what moves the water because a box of water sitting there does too many things unless you're talking about something sealed from external issues.  Stagnant water is probably not great for the species inside as well.  They might be surviving, but I would expect them to do better with an airstone. Especially shrimp.

Quote

The key to maintaining an unfiltered tank is to two-fold. First, you must carefully choose your tank inhabitants to make sure that they will not only survive in an unfiltered tank, but that they will contribute to the ecosystem. For example, live aquarium plants will act as filters by converting the CO2 produced by your fish into the oxygen they need to breathe. Having plenty of live plants in your unfiltered tank will help to keep the water quality in your tank high enough for your fish to survive.

The above article continues to say that the way to make this work is to have very frequent water changes.  That is essentially your surface agitation and your mechanism for getting rid of some of the issues that you see with standing water.

What is your maintenance schedule for the tank, when was the last time you changed water, how much?

On 12/10/2022 at 9:22 PM, BlueLineAquaticsSC said:

No filter, heater, or other tech. All of the snails are at the water line and the shrimp are crowding on a floating piece of wood, like they are trying to stay out of the water. I haven’t had a chance to test water yet, but any ideas on what’s going on, it seems pretty weird to me.

Whenever you see this, first thing you should always do is test the water.  Can you please share all testing results?  Are the species in the tank still doing this behavior?

[BlueLineAquaticsSC]

I never got around to testing the tank, but it did get more odd, the water still smelled like burning wood and turned a dark charcoal gray. I wound up doing a 100% water change about 2 weeks ago and it has been normal since, except somehow it now has what looks like mosquito larvae in it even though it’s 20 degrees here?