under gravel heaters

cbster

cbster

AC Members
Nov 16, 2003
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Freeburg, IL
is it really necessary to have an under gravel heater? i have forty plants coming and if i would really benefit from it i will put it in. i have a 55 gal. tank with 4- 40 watts 48 in. bulbs, gravel, and laterite mix, and a diy co2 reactor is there anything else i need. thanks


forgot i guess i would have to get rid of my ugf? thanks
 
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Heating cables were pushed by Dupla in their heyday, but are not widely used today. They are quite expensive and of dubious benefit. They also require starting with a bare tank.

Planted tanks can be successfully grown with RFUG at least, but it is a somewhat different technique (no substrate enrichment at all, only water column supplements). For an initial planted tank, I'd suggest more conventional substrates, either gravel plus laterite, or Seachem's Flourite or Onyx.
 
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i haven't planted the plants yet and i have a h.o.t. magnum 250 and an emperor 400 bio-wheel in the tank for filtration and the power heads i have can't reverse so should i just get rid of the ugf and not worry about the heating cable. is there anything else you think i need for a planted tank. thank you cbster
 
is there a particular reason why the bio-wheel is going to be a problem? and should i pull the plates out of the ugf are can i leave them in? thanks
 
well that makes sense. so the hot magnum is really bad for the co2 because it really agitates the water do you think i should turn the hot magnum off or just position it so it doesn't agitate the water so bad? thanks
 
I would keep the output of the filter below the surface of the water so that it doesn't disturb the surface so much. You can have current below, but when the surface gets stirred up is when you loose a lot of CO2.
 
Agree w/DIYMatt. Current is not your enemy, current is needed. Surface disruption causes equilibration of gases between the air and the water - we don't want equilibration, we want well above equilibration CO2 levels in our planted tanks.
 
I'd buy a CO(2 gas system long before considering a heating cable.
Especially for a 55 gal tank.

That will be useful, unlike the cables.

Regards,
Tom Barr
 
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