For the past two months my wife and I have been going nuts trying to identify the source of this musty, moldy smell in the fish room. It seemed to move for the tank area to the ice box, where I store fish tools on the top. I first thought it was a leak that was causing mold to grow. I searched, and then search some more, but only found that I had salt creep on my refugium side of the sump from air bubbles popping. Thinking that this little bit of moisture was causing the problem, I re-installed the plexiglass guard in that area of the refugium. Still had the smell. It was most noticeable on days we had the door shut because that room air conditioner was on because of excess heat. I even took the air conditioner apart thinking that mold was growing from within. Washed the inside of the air conditioner with Isopropyl Alcohol (a contact sterilant). Still had the smell. What was odd was at times the odor was in the tank area, and other times it was back at the ice box area. On one occasion my wife emptied the ice box, filled with DVD movies, swearing that the odor was within the cabinet. It wasn’t!
I could go on and on…..but I’ll end it here. The culprit was eventually identified as being a turkey baster. The rubber bulb stunk! The reason the location of the odor kept on changing was because sometimes I’d just leave it on top of the ice box, and other times I’d hang it on the holder under the stand. So if you smell some moldy, musty smells, check your rubber bulb on your turkey baster first. Luckily I had two other turkey basters I was using….that didn’t smell.
I could go on and on…..but I’ll end it here. The culprit was eventually identified as being a turkey baster. The rubber bulb stunk! The reason the location of the odor kept on changing was because sometimes I’d just leave it on top of the ice box, and other times I’d hang it on the holder under the stand. So if you smell some moldy, musty smells, check your rubber bulb on your turkey baster first. Luckily I had two other turkey basters I was using….that didn’t smell.
