Badger's 150g Rainbow Tank

[WhistlingBadger]

Yes indeed. Here's a weird thing I've notices, both in outdoor-mini ponds and in aquariums: Increasing water circulation tends on improve water clarity. That's a bit counter-intuitive to me, as it seems that a powerhead, waterfall, or whatever would actually keep the sediments stirred around. This tank's water is noticeably brighter and clearer since I put the powerhead back in. Anybody else notice this?

Anyway, I have five threadfin rainbows and five red Iryans in qt right now, and the zebra loaches on order. They'll look good.

[angelcraze2]

Awesome, so glad adding some current helped out so much. Interesting about your observation on water quality. Maybe it gets sucked up after being stirred up and pushed around. I have to clean my deep dirted tank filter often. I also started using Eheim prefilters on both my canisters. Takes two mins to clean. But maybe not good if it clogs up in less than a week when the tank is not at home.... just a thought.

[WhistlingBadger]

So, I'm going to have to replace the heater on this tank. I just replaced the controller, which died completely. The new controller seems to work great, but the heating element is dead.

The controller has two plug-ins, so I thought I might go with two smaller heaters rather than put all my eggs in one basket. The office has central heat/AC, so the interior temp stays right around 70F.

What kind of wattage do I need for a 150g tank, to hold it about 5-10 degrees F above room temperature?

[Slaphppy7]

Looks like you'd need 2 X 250W for a 150G:

https://www.thesprucepets.com/aquari...-guide-1381033

[WhistlingBadger]

Looks like you'd need 2 X 250W for a 150G:

https://www.thesprucepets.com/aquari...-guide-1381033

Looks like. I've never bought this kind of heater before. What brands do you recommend? Amazon has a single finnex 800w element for 60 bucks. Since I'm using a controller, I probably want just elements without the thermostat, correct, or does it matter?

If it doesn't matter, I might pick up something like these. Besides the safety/redundancy issues, I think two smaller ones would be a lot easier to hide.

[WhistlingBadger]

Well, the LFS had a couple of 300 watt fluvals, so I got them and hooked them up. Good to have it taken care of.

[WhistlingBadger]

Weirdness: The water in this tank is cloudy and smelling like sulfur. Ammonia, nitrates, nitrites, pH, hardness are all normal. Fish don't seem to be in any distress. What the heck???

[Rocksor]

Weirdness: The water in this tank is cloudy and smelling like sulfur. Ammonia, nitrates, nitrites, pH, hardness are all normal. Fish don't seem to be in any distress. What the heck???

Quite possibly anaerobic bacteria in the substrate or overfeeding. Comb the substrate and see if you get any bubbles that come up.

[sfsamm]

Weirdness: The water in this tank is cloudy and smelling like sulfur. Ammonia, nitrates, nitrites, pH, hardness are all normal. Fish don't seem to be in any distress. What the heck???

Did you do a water change in the last 24hrs?

Two things come to mind, prime turned bad and substrate gasses. If the fish are fine I'd lean on the prime.... other dechlorinators that are sulphur based can do the same thing.

The only other thought I have is filter fines.... I've went to clean canisters before and had obvious low flow zones and had sulphury smells when I opened them. When looking for the smell I had a huge chunk of something gross (lost fish, gob of plant matter, just a nasty dead bits booger?) That just reaked of it. Was a weird one off in some fine sponge that I'd probably placed wrong to begin with and quite a long time ago...

Basically if you haven't recently done a wc I've no ideas as that's the only time I've had it come up.

[WhistlingBadger]

Interesting. This tank is fairly well planted, so I shouldn't have anaerobic zones, but it's possible. Haven't done any big water changes lately or used any prime. The filter dead zone/gunk is a possibility. I'll look into it. Thanks!
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