---
title: "Why Your Reservoir Smells Bad"
date: 2024-04-20T10:00:00Z
image: "/images/IMG_2870.jpeg"
summary: "Healthy roots smell like fresh rain or cut potatoes. Swamp smell means trouble."
---

If you open your res and it smells like sulfur or rotten eggs, you have anaerobic bacteria. These thrive in low-oxygen water.

The immediate fix? Add more air. Get a bigger air pump and more stones. You can't really have "too much" dissolved oxygen in a home setup. Then figure out why the system got that stale in the first place.