Do you NEED a heater in your aquarium?
Betta 7 years ago 26,064 views
Heater failure can be catastrophic and deadly. In this video, we discuss how to know if you need one or not. Website and stocklist: http://msjinkzd.com/stocklist/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/msjinkzd/ Buy me a coffee: http://msjinkzd.com/about_msjinkzd/support-our-site/ Don't forget to subscribe!
You're so incredibly intelligent.
Do you have a degree in fish husbandry?
The fish I chose, in my aquariums, can take temps around 50° F and the high 60s as the lowest. However, since winter is approaching it would be time to invest on any five-star rated commercial heater. The weather as of yet has stayed in the 60s to 80s every other day, and the water temperature is 7° to 10° lower.
The only heater I truly own are for the small nursery tanks; 1.5gal to 5gal. I have 2 display aquariums 10gal and 20gal.
10. comment for Do you NEED a heater in your aquarium?
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Just bought a digi thermometer to get an accurate reading and it's showing the water temp as 27°C. I'd like to get it to 25°C but i've never got it below 26.5°C. At least i now have an accurate reading but do i need a new heater or none at all? Is it normal in the summer to be this high. i live in NW England, UK so we're temperate, a hot summer's day could be 28°C and in winter we use central heating. Do i need to worry about temp increase or is gradual increase ok for fish? At the moment i have otocinclus cats and amano shrimp. i would like celestial danios though and i read they like it no higher than 25°C. I'm getting another heater to test if it's a dodgy heater again or my home environment. Thanks
Mike
20. comment for Do you NEED a heater in your aquarium?
Just to share...I had to get some scarlet badis and celestial danios for my nanos! Thank you so much for covering them! OH...and how do you remember all those scientific names?
Thank You
Just look up your temp range for your fish
It's also important to note that these heaters were working very hard over this last winter with no issues.
I really appreciate your information, Rachel. It ever occurred to me to not used a heater for a tropical fish tank. I live in the Pacific Northwest so most of the year I think I would need a heater. We only heat the house in the morning and evening when we are home and in a ten gallon tank, I would be worried that the temp will fluctuate too much. I'll definitely consider not using my in tank heater during the summer.
30. comment for Do you NEED a heater in your aquarium?
Channa are air breathers and also hate regular water changes while it makes them sick or aggressive so even while I have around 3 x 180G, 6 x 100G and 12 x 65G i have a fairy low bill on water or electicity. My room also is completly filtered with air and dual corner HMF Filters.
Food is also no big deal with channas, adult Snakeheads only gets feed once per week, sub adults any two days. The only pain in the ass with them is that if they depend to fight they kill each others in a couple of hours so if you are at work it can happen you can lose a 200 Euro fish.
Also aggression and canibalism is very likley. I breed mostly with my F0 Asam Auramanticulata aka golden Cobra and if the fry starts to leave the parents after around 8 to 10 weeks with already close to 10 cm of size they go for each other like nothing if one is only around 10% smaller. For this is also the army of 65G than its very bad to lose to many to canibalism while any F1 fish is worth around 50 bucks.
Some winter days, it can get quite chilly in the bedroom where I keep a lot of my nano tanks. I hadn't ever had to use a heater for any tank until this year when a severe cold snap dropped the bedroom temp to 16 C, and less at night. Too cold for me, never mind the poor fish. So now I have heaters but they are rarely actually on, as the cold snap lasted only a couple of weeks. My biggest problem is cooling the tanks. I have fans running on the fish tanks more often than not.
50. comment for Do you NEED a heater in your aquarium?
but the eheim I still use after more than 20years and its working...
there are two forms I use. 1st the one without thermostat. u can only use them in larger tanks causeing too much heat for smaller tanks... but they , as they heat in rhythms I can choose, provide the ability to get wintertimes,as they just lift up the tanks temp some degrees over ur roomtemp.
2nd with thermostat... as they are well chosen for the tank in size the temperature was steady.
but today I place my tanks in the living room so I don't need any heater... maybe for spring or fall when we don't have the house heater on... but it's just a backup system.
Trying out some new brands ( testing) but on most tanks I run 2 heaters- lower wattage heaters, and commercial grade heater controllers. I have 12 tanks only...
I think it would be better to say 'you need a heater unless' instead of 'you don't need a heater unless'. Saying you don't need one just gives people excuses to not get one when they very much do need one.
make an educated decision instead of being sheep. To me, that is ALWAYS
good advice.
I bought 2 15 gallon tanks, I run a spongefilter and a heater.
I want to breed freshwater fish in it, do you have any suggestions?
Put a big rock or an aquarium decoration on top of the cuttlebone to avoid floating. I replace the old cuttlebone with a new one every month so the cuttlebone will stay fresh.
Can you a question and answer or tell us more about yourself !!?? :)
Speaking of, my water and electricity bill has shot up since getting into the hobby. No heaters help, but any other money saving advice you could give us on aquarium maintenance would be super helpful. Thanks!
I had a 6 foot, by 4 foot but 2 foot tank
i had a small heater as it was meant for just a back up (mostly due to the size of the tank, and the good insulation of my unit, and that the tank had the fridge on one side (and the back of a fridge is always nice and warm, and some of that warmth was free tank heating, this set up ran with my stunning and tame sailfin pleco, and a heap of cichlids, and an interesting black ghost knifefish that loved tofu (found out one day when a vegan friend made tofu dogs, and the knifefish went nuts doing laps at the top of the tank!, became his little 1st of the month treat)
middle of winter, and I had to leave town for 5 days, I had someone come in mid week to feed the fish, and make sure everything was okay, and they opened a window to air the place a little, well, those 3 nights it was below 10c (below 50F) and not much warmer in the day, (they were some of the coldest days in years)
they lack of size in the heater, and the cold overall temps meant the heater struggled and tripped the power,
I came home to half a tank dead, and some very clearly unwell fish,
I had lost a good 20 full size yellows and blues, and my knifefish when I returned
i was doing a water change until midnight that night (rainwater) with the gas oven on, and heaters to try and get the room temps ups (thus the tank temps) in a gentle as possible way,
by the monday, all bar my fully grown, sailfin pleco had passed, I took the day off work, and took her to my local aquarium experts who had some large tanks, and could provide the care
he lasted two weeks, and would right to the end great matt (the owner) each morning as she'd done for me (she loved head pats)
that store was so great, the team there tried their best, and whatever it was, (the cold or some complication afterwards) they never charged me, they understood how much it hurt at the time (not to sound cold, but many of the fish, were just fish, but there was two that were pets, and I loved, they had character) after that it took me close to 8 years to get back into the hobby
100. comment for Do you NEED a heater in your aquarium?
I use heaters in all 8 bar two tanks (goldfish 280L and golden wonder killifish fry tank 7L ).
Years ago I learnt a valuable lesson in not to go by the cheapest choice, especially not Chinese imports. I bought a cheap Chinese heater online which failed after a month, cooked my poor fish to over a 100F, £150 worth of fish gone overnight. Only trust recommended brand names with great reviews now and replace them when the manufactures warranty runs out, I won't take any chances..
But for my, eventual second shrimp tank, a heater won't be nessecary.
Big truths in your words! Totally agree ;)
. As far as heater recommendations, I really do'nt know
what to recommend. The titanium heaters with the separate controllers
(external) are my preference, or hydor inline heaters have worked for
me, and are all I have running at the moment. I would google "fish tank
heater failure" to learn what to avoid, in all honesty. I am
apprehensive about throwing any company under the bus, but there are
some doozy stories out there. One by our buddy, UaruJoey which is well
documented.
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All of my angles died
I'm curious Rachel - how do your Hillstream loaches and other cool water fishes do in your fishroom? (Fabulous I'm sure - I just wonder if the warmth affects their lifespan)
Do you think that it's a larger risk using a single higher quality heater to heat several enclosures, or multiple less-expensive heaters used to heat individual enclosures? Sorry if that's hard to understand. Thanks.
There's a trade off between a higher volume of heaters so that failure is less damaging to the collection, or a lower volume of high quality heaters so the failure is just less likely all around.
I don't know of the actual figures so $300 could be a dumb number but it's just what I came up with.
My main question is will your be some day jumping into the dark side and trial a marine set up??
for me I am jumping in mainly for the expericance of it. Plus having former been living around the Great Barrier Reef it must be done.
Thank you for the reply.
what about a daily shift if it decreases a little at night. is that dangerous?