Temperature/heating my 10g

[Sunny]

Hi! We talked a little about this subject on another thread, but feel I need to open a separate topic because of my dilemma. We have a new 10g tank and live in Texas, where it is warm in the summers. Our air conditioner at home is set at about 78 degrees F during the day and 76 degrees F at night. I put two themometers on the aquarium, one digital and one regular to insure that one is not off. But the digital goes on the outside of the tank and the other inside. Would that make a difference in reading?

At first we had incandescent light bulbs, and went from 25 watts to 15 watts, and the temperature in the tank stayed about 81 degrees if we left the lights on all day and all night, always at the top of the green "safety" line.
Then I talked to members of this forum and was told to get fluorescent bulbs in Wal Mart, 10watt, and a small heater to keep the temperature the same at all times. We did that yesterday. We are certainly happier with the lighting in the tank now, and the plants will like it too. The fluorescent lights still produce a little heat but not as much as incandescent bulbs. Still the temperature in the aquarium stays in the mid to late 70s all the time, probably because we keep our house at that all the time. The quetion is what do I do with this heater? We bought a basic clip on heater "Radiant 6 inch mini" from "Hagen". There's the following parts in it, from the top:

finely threaded adjustment screw
bimetallic strip
printed circuit temp controller
pilot light
heater tube
ceramic heater core

It has a temp control knob on the top. The only way to control it is by turning the knob 1/4 turn at a time and checking the themometer. But if the temp in the tank is already high enough without the heater (in fact I wish I could keep it cooler during the day!!!), how will I know what setting to put the heater on, say, for the night, in order not to fnd cooked fish in the morning?

Thanks for your help in advance!

 

[roliva]

Well you can't keep it cooler without changing the ambient or getting a chiller. As far as the heater, what I did with mine is start turning it up slowly, a 1/4 at a time, just until the light comes on, then turn it down slowly until the light goes off. That adjustment should make it right around the current conditions. I would keep checking a few hours afterwards just to be safe.

Romeo.

 

[happychem]

Well, first thing's first, your tank will never be colder than the room in which it's set up (at least, not for very long). Seems straightforward enough.

So based on your thermostat, you're looking at 76-78oF. You want the heater to maintain a constant temperature. Odds are you aren't home 24/7, and even if you are, you're not always paying attention to temp.

Set up your heater in the morning, before things start "heating up". The lcd thermometer stuck to the outside of the tank is sufficiently accurate, glass conducts heat very efficiently.

Turn the knob until the light comes one, but so that a slight turn will turn it back off. If you can keep your tank in the 76-78 range, fantastic. Otherwise, what this will do for you is ensure that if for some reason the temp. in your house drops below 76, your heater will kick in and keep the tank in the 76-78 range.

Pay attention to the heater when doing water changes. You need to unplug it before and back in after. The easiest way to do this is to have all your hardware on the same powerbar (with the lights on a timer, also on the powerbar). When you do maintenance, switch the bar off, then you can switch it back on when you're done. This will save you a lot of plugging and unplugging.

 

[Sunny]

Thank you for your help! I feel a lot more at ease now about the heating.

Can the lights stay on in the aquarium all night and all day, or does fish need to have dark periods too?

So, would you say the digital outside themometer is better than the regular inside the water one? I just looked at both, and the inside regular themometer shows a lower reading than the outside digital. But as the day goes it shows the other way around. The difference is about 2-3 degrees.

 

[roliva]

If what you mean by the inside thermometer is a regular mercury thermometer, then this is the one that's more accurate than the outside digital. The outside digital gets slightly influenced by the ambient temp as I compared both with an internal digital (with temp probe). As far as lights, yes you should turn off the lights at night. Fish need need rest too.

 

[happychem]

What you need is stable temp. in any case. I agree that the internal one is the more accurate.

Leave the lights on for 10-12 hours per day. Not only is it better for your fish, but if you're keeping plants, they need a dark period as well. Turning the light off will also help with algae control.