German Blue Ram & Angel Fish Temprature

Hi there

I am trying to find a midway compromise temp for my tank of Rams and Angels. Now, Loadshedding is giving me such grief because the temperature drops by 2-3 degrees at least each time. I have set my Heater to 27.5 but even when there isn’t Loadshedding I never get a reading higher than 25. So that means when there is Loadshedding the temp can drop down even to 22.

How safe is this for my fish? I find they hide a lot under the driftwood so I really think this is causing them quite a bit of stress.

What temperature should I be setting my heater at? It’s a 300watt Dophin and I have a 260l tank.

TIA

 

I would look at either your heater not being adequate to keep up with heating the water or something wrong with your readings. A steady drop in temperature won't be bad for your fish. I've set my tank to 28 which is a good middle ground for loadshedding.

Sent from my PPA-LX2 using Tapatalk

 

I’d agree you’d maybe need a second heater for that water volume.
On my rimless 54l tank, a 50W heater wasn’t really sufficient, and ended up with a 100W, for reference. And the tank is in a pretty warm room for the most part.
Some thermometers read inaccurately too, and even heaters can be off.
Around 26-28C is usually good for rams/ angels.

 

Thank you. When I got the Tank it came with 2 broken 300w Heaters. I asked at my LFS about needing 2 and they said they didn’t think so and so I only bought 1. I will pick up a second one though. I have just had the Water tested and although the water is clean with no funky stuff going on the PH was very low anf the GH was less than 3 so not ideal for the Angels at all. I got some Seachem Replenish to raise it a little and will test again. I suspect that Heat along with the very soft water has caused them major stress. Since the heater has been turned up, more Angels have come out to dwell mid to top level at least.

 

Cool, yeah generally a safe ratio of heater to volume is 1.5 - 2W per litre, but it again depends on location's ambient temp.
Our water is indeed very soft in CT (not sure about WC in general) - my tap is KH 0/1; GH 3/4/; TDS +-55. Adding a bit of crushed coral to your filter, or somewhere in the tank, will help keep it steady.
I use Seachem Equilibrium to raise my GH, and Seachem Alkaline buffer to bring up my KH, with every water change (instead of coral, but both can be used together as well).

Sounds like things are settling though, nice.

 

Thank you. I wanted the crushed Coral but my LFS didn’t have any so I took the Replenish instead. Hopefully it helps.