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Heater choices.....any recommendations???

2K views 5 replies 4 participants last post by  Steve Hampton 
#1 ·
I am in the planning stages for a 75 gallon, planted tank. I was looking at heaters (the tank will be in the basement of our home and the room stays cool (63-68) degrees F. most of the time.) and had a few questions:
1) Will 200 watts be enough heat?
2) Should I buy one 200W heater or two 200W units? (My logic behind 2 heaters is that
should one fail the other would be able to maintain heating needs much better than none)
3) I will use submersible heater(s) in any case, any suggestions?
 
#2 ·
Two small heaters are definitely better than one. If you're really still in the planning stages, see if you can't find a good deal on some substrate heating cables, too. They don't actually heat the water much, but the slight temperature differential between the substrate and water aids in water convection, which aerates the roots. I've seen some tanks with substrate cables that have been running for a while and the results are amazing for rooted plants such as swords.

I've had more good experiences with Rena heaters than any other brand I've tried. If that says anything for you, hehe.
 
#3 ·
Here's a great little heater calculator for determining how many heating watts you need based on tank size, glass thickness, bottom insulation, room temperature difference. Most people divided the results by two and use two heaters for a 4 foot tank. In your case, if the answer is 200W, then using 2 x 100W would be my choice. Substrate heating is quite expensive. There are several proponents, I've used it any found it to be of no help, but I live in Florida and heating is not an issue. Your situation (where there is a larger temperature difference between tank and room) would possibly benefit from substrate heating.

One other note, you can insulated the bottom of your tank with something as simple as felt and save 20% of the heat that would be lost without the addition of the felt.

Heater Calculator
 
#4 ·
If I'm not mistaken, though, heating a substrate is not so much for attaining a certain temperature, or preventing heat loss, but rather having a temperature differential between the substrate and water column. If you can warm up the substrate enough, water will flow from the more dense areas to areas with a lower density, delivering oxygen to the roots. That's the theory, anyway. If they're prohibitively expensive, I can understand not wanting to add that complexity to the tank, though.
 
#5 ·
I've used the Ebo-Jager heaters and they are great... Never had a single problem with them.

About substrate heating, I would be worried most about having the cables getting in the way of the roots and stuff. I'm sure it would make a difference though.

-Tim
 
#6 ·
GulfCoastAquarian Wrote:
If I'm not mistaken, though, heating a substrate is not so much for attaining a certain temperature, or preventing heat loss, but rather having a temperature differential between the substrate and water column.
Your quite correct. I failed to make my point(s) very well. Living in Florida, the problem more often is from tanks overheating, thus my substrate heating cables never come on at all during the spring, summer, or fall. You don't create the convection unless they operate almost continuously. Actually that's not quite true either, there is sufficient convection whether heating cables are used or not. Anyway, sorry for confusing that issue and adding more confusion with the felt for heat retention. Heat retention should be done for both situations and I failed to make that point clear also. I have a habit of commingling my points...it makes sense when I type it. :)

To be truely effective heating cables must be low wattage and the lighting needs to be well ventilated so that the lighting system doesn't heat the water too much. The people on the APD that report success (there aren't very many) have those elements in common. For most the heating cables run 24/7 with the possiblilty of needing auxiliary heat (usually in the sump) in the winter cold months. Most everone uses a wet/dry filter to remove and quickly process the mulm and decaying material that is forced upward by the substrate's heat currents. I must also point out that I didn't have a wet/dry in use either, but again my cable were never on.

Tim wrote:
About substrate heating, I would be worried most about having the cables getting in the way of the roots and stuff. I'm sure it would make a difference
You are correct Tim. The use of heating cables are for systems that are setup with the desire to run the tank with very little changes to the layout. Roots do get tangled easily, but that's not an issue if your not planning on rearranging the aquascape frequently. Most people are planning on letting these tanks run status quo for 3 to 5 years. I rarely go 3 to 5 months without moving plants around.
;)
 
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