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I went visiting today to pick up some livebearers and a hunk of LR, and while I was there I was asked about the likely cause of deaths in this guy's tanks. He's lost 6 seahorses, a 4' planted tank, and a few other odds and sods.

He was wondering if it could be his dechlorinator.

I'm not sure what Prime is supposed to smell like, but this stuff was somewhere between the anaerobic bacteria gas and coal tar. I'm pretty sure it wasn't supposed to smell like that, but I cannot be certain as I don't use it.

Can someone who uses it confirm?

If it is 'off', why? What is it it that could turn bad? I was under the impression that it was fairly dead to start with and wouldn't have much for bacteria to feed on, so what would make it smell so bad and (assuming it is the cause) be so lethal?

For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett

I use Prime & it does smell bad. It says on the bottle,"Sulfur odor is normal." So it IS supposed to smell like that.
I would look elsewhere for the problem.

Cool, I'll cross that off the list.

That pretty much leaves our ever-so-stable water supply as the culprit.

Ta

For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett