I'm gonna be setting up a planted 55gal soon and I'm just wondering if substrate heaters make any difference?
Do you use a sustrate heater?
- Thread starter melissa3
- Start date
substrate heaters heat around the roots of your plants and have a more even distribution of heat.
honestly, i don't see the point in it unless you're running a coldwater tank, and then the heater would negate the coldwater aspect of it.
perhaps if you had an extremely large tank with a substrate of 6" or more, it would be useful. otherwise, IMO, pointless.
perhaps if you had an extremely large tank with a substrate of 6" or more, it would be useful. otherwise, IMO, pointless.
from everything i have read they are just a waste of money. the roots get tangled up in the wires. it doesnt heat the tank very well.
Que
I wish I was a fish I wish.
From what I read the idea of substrate heaters is to mimic how the bottom of ponds and lakes heat up during the day. When this happens it's supposed to create water movement through the substrate which is supposed to bring nutrients down to the roots. In practice this doesn't really work all that well. The use of substrate heaters seems to have been a fad in Germany and other parts of Europe.
Q
Q
Issue one:
Sediments are always the same temp or colder below the surface, where these folks(whoever they are) who make claims about their effectiveness place their heaters.
Now we should have the heaters on the surface based on that rational, they are not the least bit natural as I've yet to see any natural system where aquatic plants grow in profusion that is heated from below.
Cables are not laying on top of the sand are they?
Walk in the pond, or on the sand at the beach.
The sand is nice a cool below the surface, generally the top 1 cm and decreases rapidly.
Issue two:
Additionally, how long does this heating effect take place?
A few hours during the daylight cycle.
So perhaps 8 hours, not 24/7.
It does not even remotely mimic natural systems.
I've been after these folks that claim they work or help to show any shred of evidence beyond their belief, any reference that suggest they help increase plant growth.
Note, this is general issue, targeting those that claim it works, not you personally. Promise
Yes, the German Dupla company really went whole hog on marketing these, but even in Denmark, they railed against them and tested it and soon learned they do not help plant growth, in fact, they reduce it slightly(Ref: Tropica, the largest aquatic plant nursery in Europe).
I've been after them for nearly 20 years and I have never gotten a single answer. I've spoken with Ole, Troels, Claus from Tropica, any aquatic botanist that would listen, they all said it's rubbish.
Additionally, I have used them myself for over a decade, I never saw a dag gum thing I could ever say with any confidence that was related to the cables.
I owned 7 of them.
I live where it gets warm in the summer.
So they never run when the temps are high, which is about 4 months or more out of the year. Never saw any differences in the tanks for a decade.
I figure 10 years worth of observations, excellent growth, ADA etc, my own tanks, without cables, 7 replicates, I have enough data to challenge anyone on this topic.
I want results, not belief.
The results just are not there.
So..........the burden of proof are on those to offer up some real evidence.
Heck even some redox value differences between the cable vs the no cables.
Dry weight differences would be nice, but that's not going to happen.
Even eyeballing the differences, say 1" per week vs 2 inches per week.
I've done all that.
Nothing.
Show some hard data, show some methods, show something other than nice words and repeats of old past post or marketing talk.
Try turning them off for awhile then see for yourself.
I'm after them for a few reasons, well over 1000$ worth of cables and not one thing to show for it.
At least give me an answer for the 1000$??
Regards,
Tom Barr
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Que
I wish I was a fish I wish.
