Well water around here does the same thing. Used to be places where you could send a water sample and they would/could tell you which anode rod would be suitable. Tried it once and same smell. Don't know if there is still places that do that. Installed water heaters here in our small town and all over the country side. Before we delivered and hooked up a water heater we removed the anode and hacksawed off everything below the threads and reinstall. Eliminated the rotten egg smell 100% of the time. Did this to dozens of heaters. Anode is to protect the tank from electroless' (sp?) but tanks usually only lasted 8-10yrs in these parts with the water we have. However there are some that went 25+. Just replaced mine 3wks ago, wasn't leaking but it was down in a crawl space with no drain so I did it again before it started. It was in use for 12 or 13yrs. Depends I think on how good of a job manufacturer did at their glass coating? Code here is using dialectric (sp? again) unions on top of w/h between it and piping if copper.
Different places, different codes, I would notify landlord and either have him do it or hire someone as any mods to plumbing etc could affect your lease??
