inconsistent temperature

[angyles]

I can't get my tank temp. to be consistent for the life of me. I switched from incondescent to flourescent lighting thinking that would do it. no luck. I bought a more powerful heater. no luck. I've even set my room thermostat so the room temp is stable. STILL no luck. My water temperature fluctuates from 70 to 80 in one day. I can't seem to control it. And I'm afraid of having another ich outbreak because of it.

Is there some secret I'm missing or should I buy yet another heater? It's only a 10g, I would think 1 50watt heater would be enough, shouldn't it?

 

[Turbo]

Temperature

I have a ten gallon with a 50w heater in it. I have live plants in it so I have a fluorescent light on it most of the day and because of that the heater normally doesnt even come on and the tank stays at 78-80. Where is your tank in your house. Are you by a window or a heat duct or something. I cant quite understand why the temp would change so much unless you have a cheap heater. If you set your tank to 78 it should stay there. If it drops below the heater turns on...obviously. And if its over 78 then thats because of the the outside environment and hence the heater wouldnt turn on at all. Let us know some more specifics of your tank.

 

[angyles]

It's in the middle of my living room. no heater or window anywhere near it. The heater was a cheap heater, I didn't think it would make a difference. I guess I was wrong. I suppose I'll just go buy a new one.

 

[Turbo]

Heater

Yeah, try getting a Ren Cal or something that calibrates to .5-1 degree F. You dont need the most expensive one that they got but the cheap five dollar heaters from Wally-World just wont cut it.

 

[Cichlid Woman]

Hey, Angyles,

Did you see the post on page 1 about a guy with the same problem? Turns out the heater doesn't work unless the ambient temperature in the room is 75 degrees (or something like that)--you might check out that post.

-- Pat

 

[JeffP]

I had a problem with a 10G this fall. My house has a programmable thermostat that goes from 69/70 when we're home down to 62 when we're gone. I bought a 50W visitherm and it holds the temperature at a rock solid 70 (it's a temporary goldfish home)

 

[JSchmidt]

It sounds like you may have a cheap heater with poor temp control. Get an Ebo Jager or Tronic.

Also, Cichlid Woman is confused about the ambient temperature. A heater doesn't know what the room's ambient temperature is; the only effect ambient temp has is to maybe cause a heater to be undersized. (If ambient temp is quite low, a heater 'rated' for a 10 gallon tank may not be able to pump out enough heat to keep a 10 warm enough.) But the heater can't sense the ambient air temp...

HTH,
Jim

 

[fishfreek]

As has been said above there is no substitute for a good qualtiy heater. This is one area that going cheap definatly does not pay.

You never say what the room temp in that room is. The more the tank temp has to be above room temp then the larger a heater you need.

Does the tank peak at 80 when the lights are on? If so then maybe at night your heater is not large enough to carry the load given the room temp to tank temp differental.

 

[angyles]

thanks for all the input. I went ahead and bought a new heater yesterday. I don't remember the brand, but a friend had one like it without a problem. I can happily say, I woke up this morning to see my temp didn't budge 1 degree!!! I haven't had this happen in the 2 1/2 months or so that I've had the tank setup.

 

[Cichlid Woman]

Thanks for the clarification, Jim. I was apparently confused. Not for the first time ...

-- Pat