Question about water conditioner and heater

T20

1. Size of aquarium (# of gallons) 39gals
2. Is your aquarium set up freshwater or saltwater? freshwater
3. How long the aquarium has been setup? over a year
4. What fish and how many are in the aquarium (species are important to know) 8 neon tetras, 5 female guppies, 1 cory catfish
5. Are there live plants in the aquarium? yes
6. What make/model filter are you using? Tetra Whisper
7. Are you using a CO2 unit? no
8. Does your aquarium receive natural sunlight at any given part of the day? yes
9. When did you perform your last water exchange, and how much water was changed? 3 days ago
10.How often and what foods do you feed your fish? twice a day
11.Is your aquarium light incandescent or fluorescent and how often is it kept on? fluorescent I think, it came with the tank. 1hr before I go to work in the morning then 3-4hrs at evening

I usually put AquaSafe and aquarium salt in my tank for over a year now. Today I saw Easy Balance on a site. I want to know if there is any difference between two of them. Also I would like suggestion on a good heater for my 39gal tank. I already exchanged the heater that came with my tank kit. The thermometers are showing 80F, and the heater is still on (I set it to 72F). I got one kind of thermometer that stick to the glass on the far side of heater and one kind with suction cup at the middle of the tank. Both are showing 80-81F. I'm thinking about getting the Visi-Therm Stealth Heater - 200W model.

Lupin

Welcome to Fishforum.com.

Not sure about Easy Balance but Aquasafe works well. As for the heater, I used Sera but lots of people vouch for the use of Visitherm.

herefishy

Aquarium salt with tetras? Tetras prefer softer water and salt may not agree with them. As are the cories, as a rule.

beetlebz

I use, oh id guess a little less than half the recommended dose of FW salt in all of my tanks. One of those tanks is a 29gal with 12 glowlight tetras and they dont seem upset in the least about it! Can always start slow i guess with a little bit of salt then move up some if it's well tolerated.

for a conditioner I use seachem prime, only because its strong stuff. a bottle of prime last 5x longer for me than the amquel stuff I was using. check the dosing directions on some of them... some are like 2 capfuls per 5 gallons, some are 1 capful for 50 gallons (or something like that). I THINK the prime is something silly like that, 1 cap for 50 gallons.

Ive used a few different heaters and if there is any one thing I learned, the little number on the dial means CRAP ;) my visitherm doesnt even have numbers on it. just know which way is up and which is down, and use your thermometer to find the sweet spot! I would turn it down until it goes off, then see where the temp stabilizes after a few hours. It could be a bad thermostat, could just be bad numbering.

mHeinitz57

as for water conditioner I also use Prime because it is more concentrated and Seachem makes good products. The heater I have now is a visitherm stealth because I think it just looks better and I think it works pretty well. 200w would be good for that size of a tank. As for aquarium salt, I posted in a discussion before about why aquarium salt can actually weaken fish over time. Unless you dont take care of your tank or it is a high stress environment, salt is a bad idea. The only time I would ever use it is to treat disease.

mgamer20o0

i vouch for visi therms..... i also only use prime to treat my water.

i wont add salt unless i am treating a tank. none of my tanks have salt in them at all.

mHeinitz57

I like your style mgamer Yeah I never use any conditioner except for initial treatment of the water. Conditioners shouldnt be used to maintain water quality...do water changes!