heater cranked to 86F, readout 80F

[honghong322]

I'm trying to do the heat treatment since on of my cardinals seem to have ick on his tail. I have a Visa-Therm heater and I cranked up to 86, but my Coral life digi says it's only 80F. I have no hood and I'm up in the Northeast... what should I do?

Sorry, I have a 29g tank and the rating on the heater is 150W or 200W I believe, I want to say it's 200W. I don't have any other thermometer in the house =\ I don't know which one to trust

[BoredAgain]

What size tank and wattage rating of heater? Do you have another thermometer that you can use to duplicate the reading?

[Carp37]

None of my heaters get close to the temperature readings they're supposed to- one of them is set at its minimum of 20 degrees and runs at 27! Most of the others run a lot hotter than they're set at- you've obviously got one that reads colder than it should!

[The Zigman]

what is the air temp in the room?
crank up the room temp if you have to.

If there is a big difference in the air temp vs. water temp, the heater will have to work harder to warm the water.

[honghong322]

yea, it's still about 35F outside and inside the house it's probably around 65-67F. I specifically got the more wattage heater so I don't have to run into problems like this... hmm oh well... I might have to add another one since I have another one lying around to get rid of this ick problem..

[The Zigman]

adding another heater to the tank would be cheaper than cranking up the furnace.. at least around here anyway...

[crazycanuck]

86?? my uncles pool is colder than that lol

[tranceFusion]

i am with the others as i have never seen a heater that actually set the water to the printed temperature.

however, your thermometer might be wrong. i have a digi aquarium thermometer, a suction cup mercury one, and a digi meat thermometer, and they measure a difference total of about 6 degrees.. i just average them, but i would like something more accurate.

[Marinemom]

I would suggest using two heaters if possible in your tank if it is at all possible. This way the one heater will not have to work as hard and if something does happen to the one heater then you will have a back up in place so the fish will still have their water being heated. It is also easier to reach a certain temp. in the tank if you are using two heaters and tends to be more consistent with little or no fluctuations.

Marinemom

[The Zigman]

I have 3 250 watt stealths in my 125. one is set at 84, the other 2 are at 80 ish
my water stays right at 83 with usually only 1 heater working.. I am sure when its cold, the other 2 come on, but primarilaly only 1 heater does the work.

[jm1212]

a 150 should be fine for a 29 gallon...where is the heater in the tank?

[honghong322]

The heater is in one corner... I had an old EBO-Jager 100W lying around so I plugged that in and put it at the other side of the tank. I went and picked up one another thermometer, the non-digital one and it says I'm at 84F...