I've been getting an eggy smell in my tank that's caused by bad bacteria. My system is RTW so nothing is recirculating. I'm using GHO's The End with beneficial anaerobic microbes. I did an experiment with a solution of those in a separate bucket and it was left for more than a week in the same room in same conditions with no eggy smell. Many other people have been using The End and BAM with no such issues proving those are not the problem, therefore it must be something in my pipes, pumps or tank, or the pH adjustment (BioBizz Bio-Down or Plagrom Lemon Kick which are probably both citric acid) causing it. I have thoroughly cleaned my tank and pumps with a strong solution of hot water and Silver Bullet twice, then with isopropyl and hot water, pumping it through the system a few times and leaving the rest to soak for 24 hours, then flushing again with clean, filtered water.
The first time I took the pumps out and apart there was quite a bit of biofilm gunk in them from using Ionic previously, especially in the sponge filter so I binned that and won't be replacing it. After that the smell took longer to come back, so it seems to have worked a bit. My theory now is that the pipes might still have biofilm gunk in them and it's flowing back into the tank when the pump goes off - I punched an anti-siphon hole near the top of the feed pipe inside the tank to prevent floods, so some solution does flow back to the tank.
My question is, is it safe to use Silver Bullet in a tank along with organic nutrients?
I have asked GHO and said it probably won't hurt but admittedly doesn't have much experience with hydro/coco. It will obviously kill any beneficial microbes so no point using BAM as well but the microbes are less or not at all important in hydro/coco.
I'm going to clean my pumps and tank again, and replace all the pipes but maybe using Silver Bullet in the tank with my nutrients will save me some work in future.
Any advice appreciated!
