water buckets

[FishyReef]

I recently bought additional water buckets to store saltwater in for my qt tank project that bombed. The buckets are those orange 5g buckets that you get from home depot. Today when I went to change water on my sad little 10g tank, the water in both buckets had a strange chemically smell, and one of the buckets had a grey dirt-looking sediment or residue on the bottom. I obviously dumped the water and didn't do the water change. Anyone ever had problems w/ these types of buckets before giving off odors or leaving stuff at the bottom of the bucket? The water had been sitting in it for 1-2 weeks so wasn't freshly made, and was the last water I had (new salt is on order). I've been so bummed out w/ my tiny tank disaster and now down to only 1 healthy coral and 4 others that are barely hanging on. Now being out of water just adds to the misery. Sucks :(

 

[ErinCahir]

I never had an issue with the depot buckets.

 

[Bifferwine]

Me either. I've always used the 5 gallon buckets from Lowe's or Home Depot. I'm guessing it was just something growing in the old water.

 

[little_fish]

I never had the chemically smell, but I did get the grey stuff that deposited on the side. I figured it was because i didnt have a powerhead in the bucket to keep stuff stirred up.

 

[bigford]

sounds like you have stagnate water
my 40 gallon rubber maid garbage can has 2 802 power heads in it
and i get salt deposits at the bottom that i stir up before i do a
water change. after i do the change i rinse the bucket with hot water.