A question about a hang on the back heater

[captmicha]

I bought 2 Hagen Elite Radiant 25 watt heaters. It says they're for aquariums up to 5.5 gallons. This looks like it: http://www.petdiscounters.com/c15/c69/c87/Radiant-Heaters-p989.html

The problem is that the line where the water level has to go up to is pretty high. And since it has to hang over the rim of the aquarium, it's hard to have the water level that high. The aquarium would pretty much have to be filled to the brim to reach the line. An additional problem with the water having to be that high is that the water line would be way over the output of my hang on the back filter. So the filtration wouldn't be efficient.

I tried sawing off a 4" strip of the black rim that goes on the top of the aquarium but it barely made any difference since the glass is about as high as the rim inside of it. I wonder if that makes any sense. I tried to make this not confusing.

So, I don't want to get rid of these two heaters that I bought, and I don't want to get rid of the filter, so how do I use the heaters??

I know it's dumb but I made a picture to show what I mean.

 

[7itanium]

wouldnt recommend removing the plastic on your aquarium.. that is there for stability and can cause seals to burst

 

[Anoop]

Is it submersible? If it his, just put it horizontally in the back .

 

[Fishfiles1]

its not submersible that why its HOB

 

[duke33]

The filter should work with the water level up. Other than that I (my opinion only) don't think it HAS to be that high. Unplug it when you do a wc. This is why I only buy the submersiables(sp) these days.

 

[Anoop]

Come to think of it I have one of these old HOB filters. It's a brown penn-plax one and I never filled it to the water line, it works fine.

 

[captmicha]

Great to know! I only got these b/c they were super cheap. Under $5 on Ebay. I wanted them as spares for small tanks when I had to set up quarantines or something. Now I need to use it b/c the submersible heater I had for my shrimp's 5 gallon is trash.