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emergent

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Jan 8, 2006
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Williamsburg, VA
Ok I'm at work and my wife calls me ans says that the temperature on my tank is 89.7 degrees. My first thought was what is the temperature in the room with the tank. It was our normal 68 degrees in the morning time. The submersible heater temp was set for 78. I told my wife to pull the heater out and change the temp to something between 70 and 73 and then pour some cold water in the corner where most of the fish don't really hang out. The temp droped a few degrees within and hour or so and then I come home to check the heater. While checking the heater I notice my Penguin 200 bio wheel is not spinning. After messing with it for about an hour, I decided I need to buy a new filter. I have no idea how long the filter has not been working correctly for. Itested my water and everything was high except for the Nitrates. Ammonia and Nitrite were almost off the chart. I did a 50% water change immediately and I added stress coat to the water. I wanted to buy an Ehiem canister filter but the LFS didn't carry any and they didn't have any affordable canister filters. So while walking thru the isle looking at the different filters and reading the boxes, I settled for the AquaClear HOB. It essentially works just like any canister.

Has anyone had any experiences with AquaClear??

Is it any good?

:hang:
 
I own 5 AC filters. They work fine. Don't ever rinse the AC sponges in water that hasn't been dechlorinated.

Sounds like your tank is going through a cycle since the Penguin failed. A couple days without the bio-wheel spinning and its usefulness is gone. A Penguin 200 doesn't seem big enough to handle a 46g though. I hope you got at least an AC50 (300gph). Although my general rule for HOB filters is 10x. 46g = 460gph of filtering. HOBs work fine, but don't have as much media capacity as a typical cannister.

Keep on top of those water changes to keep the ammonia and nitrite down.
 
Just a note, emergent --

IMO a tank over 20 gals, heck, ANY sized tank -- can always use a second filter. If you run two filters then not only do you get double the filteration, but you have a fail-safe if one dies. I've two filters on all my tanks except my 10gs, and that's only because I haven't gotten to those yet.

Also, consider having two heaters as well. Get heaters rated LOWER than what you need. If they have to work in conjunction with each other to keep your tank at the set temperature, if one fails then the other will shut off and you won't cook your fish.

Roan
 
Ok so I have a 46 gl tank and I have single, I believe, a 200w heater. So should I get two 100w heaters or 2 150w heaters?

Any help in this area would be greatly appreciated. :dive:
 
emergent said:
Ok so I have a 46 gl tank and I have single, I believe, a 200w heater. So should I get two 100w heaters or 2 150w heaters?

Any help in this area would be greatly appreciated. :dive:
Click to expand...
2 x 100w should be fine. You could probably do 2 x 75w as well. I have 2 x 150w on all my 75gs instead of the 300w people want to sell me :rolleyes:

Your fish are in more danger of getting cooked than chilled, so go low as you can. The tank will never get more than a degree or two lower than the room it's in, but with an abundance of heating, it could climb into the tall 90s and kill.

Roan
 
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