HCA: Hermit Crab Association

Last week I had an emergency clean out of my tank at 11p.m. like 2 days before it had started to smell like rotted fruit.. I removed things looking for it but came up empty handed. The next day it was worse. I took everything out! Washed everything, stirred my substrate and it smells better. Later on I went to feed them and I just about lost it...I took the stuff out washed it & the smell stuck to my plants & my fish tank decorations I used. I started to move the sand around and the smell just about made me puke! So at 11p.m. I took all the sand out of my 55 gal tank, luckily I had 4 bricks of eco earth. All my stuff I had to trash.. I went to Wal-Mart and bought me a rock formation decoration..they had a log like I had but decided to get something different. Will go to dollar tree Monday to get plants. Get my moon glow light this week to..

Ever figure out the direct cause of the smell?

Nope, either some fruit got buried and liquefied or I found some really wet sand and it had went bad.. Then when I stirred it up it just took off and wow the smell just gross!