Bad smell from Eco earth

snacks · Post by **snacks** » Tue May 19, 2009 7:40 am

Hi all,

I have just done a deep clean a few days ago and switched to eco earth to try it out. Previously I was using all sand. However, today i realized that there is a bad smell from the eco earth. Why is that so? Is the eco earth too wet? I realised the bottom of my wood items are damp due to water from the damp eco earth. The tank had been cleaned and all the decorations washed and heated during the deep clean.

Thanks for any advice!

hermiegirl · Post by **hermiegirl** » Tue May 19, 2009 7:43 am

EE smells more foresty than sand does. If you're used to sand, then it's going to smell different. EE also holds in moisture and humidity better than sand, so your wood sitting in it will be damp. That's a good thing.

snacks · Post by **snacks** » Tue May 19, 2009 6:36 pm

oh ok thanks a lot! so the smell is normal right? My parents are complaining about the smell

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Tue May 19, 2009 9:12 pm

The smell usually calms down after a few days. It's partly because it is so wet from reconstituting from dry bricks. I don't mind the smell myself - smells like fresh garden earth. My wooden pieces do tend to stay wet on the bottom. I occasionally turn the smaller pieces over so the wet parts dry out.

I've found that I no longer have a humidity problem like I had with play sand. The crabs seem to like it too.

snacks · Post by **snacks** » Wed May 20, 2009 1:22 am

oh ok thanks

I will wait a few days to see if the smell calms down. Hmm I think the bad smell smells more like stagnant water or something turned bad instead of garden smell

Hopefully it goes off soon...

hermiegirl · Post by **hermiegirl** » Wed May 20, 2009 7:42 am

Did the crabs bury some food in the moist EE perhaps? I noticed that smell in particular only when they hid some food. Once they bury it, it does tend to go bad faster in EE cuz of the higher water content, but it's not the EE in that case.

snacks · Post by **snacks** » Wed May 20, 2009 10:52 am

I did not find any buried food but I think I may have found the problem. There is this dried starfish which I placed in the tank and 2 of its legs seems to be crumpling apart and giving off a bad smell. I threw it away. Hopefully it will solve the problem!

hermiegirl · Post by **hermiegirl** » Wed May 20, 2009 11:20 am

That would do it. EE is only supposed to have an earthy scent. It's quite nice I think over the sand.