heating the roots of plants?

[red devil]

I saw an ad for a substrate heater. The ad said that if the roots of the plant are a little warmer than the water above the plant will be healthier, etc etc. I thought this was strange...I am not a chemist or physicist but I do understand convection. It seems to be that if you set the substrate heater for 1 degree warmer than the water above, the ss heater will be on continually, or until the water is the same temp as the substrate. Is this correct?

 

[180gz71]

Thats basically how they work. Although, not necessary. Ive only used one once, and there was no noticeable diffference.

 

[DarkSoul]

I would imagine that feeding oxygen to to the roots would have better results.

It does with potted plants anyway.

trust me, bury an airstone in the dirt at the bottom of a potted plant, and watch it grow better.

healthier roots too.


Cant speak for aquatic plants however.

 

[TKOS]

Or just get some Malaysian Trumpet Snails. They dig around in the dirt and help to oxygenate the roots. Nice addition to any tank.

 

[Rex Grigg]

Did the same add mention a high tech lubricant for legless reptiles?

There have been NO studies done that show substrate heater have any benefit. People that have them will make all sorts of claims. But hey I can make claims too. Doesn't prove squat.

If you have money to burn and love gadgets then by all means buy a substrate heater. But otherwise just have a good laugh.

 

[red devil]

Thanks! It is useful information...but the brunt of my question - put another way, is that it seems that if you put the heater under the gravel (or whatever) it is going to heat the whole tank up to the same temperature, so there will be no difference between the root area and above the root area, again because of convection. Is that correct?

 

[brads]

Thanks! It is useful information...but the brunt of my question - put another way, is that it seems that if you put the heater under the gravel (or whatever) it is going to heat the whole tank up to the same temperature, so there will be no difference between the root area and above the root area, again because of convection. Is that correct?

Correct. The entire tank will eventually become the temperature of whatever you set the substrate heater at so... Smart guy, you picked that right up.

 

[Star_Rider]

that may inpart be relative to the depth of the soil..soil is an excellent insulator..the water would cool the soil above the heater cool the soil below..heat exchange from the tank may cool faster than the heater can heat..a lot of parameters where there isn't much info.
and at what point is it too much heat??(random passing thoughts)

but I would suspect the heater may run all the time..
'does this heater have an adjustment?

 

[wesknox]

Red:

I've often wanted to experiment with this idea in the past. Over the years I've discovered a few things about substrate that has put me off of the idea.

* The more organic (fish waste) material that is in my gravel, the better the plants do and the worse the algae does.
* The less disturbance I do to the gravel, the less problems I have with algae

The convection of an undergravel heater is going to cause nutrients that settle into the substrate to leach back into the water column more than without the undergravel heater. My personal observations and things that I've read indicate that this is potential problems relative to algae growth.

I've not vacuumed a tank for more than 6 years and have not had to. I don't have a layer of detritus on the gravel nor a carpet of algae there either. Prior to this I did experiment with vacuuming and discovered I would get algae in significant amounts within a couple of days after vacuuming.

Some of my most wild plant tanks have been where there were so many plants that you couldn't get a vacuum in "edgewise" so to speak. One tank was 100g stuffed with Hygrophilia sp, and the other was was 100g with Crypts that were wall-to-wall and grew to within 6" of the surface (this tank had a ball of java moss in the middle that filled a 5gal plastic bucket when I took it to the LFS.

Bottom line is that I don't see the advantage of additional heat (or O2 for that matter) in the substrate vs the potential problems it can cause with algae. Most natural environments don't have heat source in substrate and they seem to do pretty well.

My two cents.

 

[Que]

Have you ever felt your heater in the tank? It feels warmer than the surrounding water. I would think the same for an undergravel heater. I think the gravel would be warmer than the water but probably not by much.

Q