Heater effectiveness

Is the Heater effective standing upright?

 

Yes Most are effective, rather stick to the manufacturer's instructions

 

I've always (where possible) kept my heaters upright. I've had no issues doing this. The one thing that I would recommend though, is that the heater is placed next to the filter inlet. That way the heat gets circulated evenly through the tank (assuming your circulation covers the tank) and is far less likely to create 'heat pockets'.

Peoples thinking is that the heat rises and switches off the thermostat on the heater, before the entire tank has been warmed. But if the tanks circulation is good enough, this will not be an issue. Maybe if the tank is a low or poor circulated tank, then I may consider putting it diagonal, but as Khalid says, why not follow the manufacturers suggestions, especially when those suggestions have a big red cross next to diagonal mounting?

Regards
G!

 

I place a airstone under my 'upright' heater. This creates a upward water flow and at the top is one of my caniater outlets. So im more that happy with the circulation of the heat. I use only one 300w on 1200L. When i do a big water change in the winter i add 2 more heaters for about 4 hours or untill i reach my 26 deg.

 

My theory is that the mechanism that turns the heater on and off, the thermostat, would stay heated longer because of convection, thus heating the water for shorter periods and being "less" effective than it would be lying somewhat at an angle? My thinking up the tree or do i make a valid point?

 

Only if the flow in your tank is to weak to move the heat away and
in that case I would rather look at another filter and leave the heater.

 

@Go-Big is the air heated or you using cooler ambient air?

Later Ferdie

 

Morning Ferdie.

The air pump is under my tank enclosed so the temp might be 10 lower. But the bubbles must travel 50cm in warm water before they get to the heater(tank is 80cm tall and filled to the brim). So i think the air temp would be relatively close to the tank temp by the time it gets there.

 

I did a small experiment in my 30cm nano with the heater placed diagonally vs vertically. that in itself made no difference, but moving the spray-bar of my filter to point to the center of the tank, with the filter inlet close to the heating element definitely heats up the tank quicker. (FWIW, my filter is a very low flow internal)

 

So how did you test the effectiveness of the heater?

 

@Wes, monitored overall average temperature fluctuations of the tank, also monitored how quickly temperature returned to 'normal' after large water changes. perhaps not scientific but for my purposes it satisfied my curiosity

 

What is the normal range of temp fluctuation. I recently bought a digital thermometer and the variance shocked me !!! Up to 4 degrees .... This cannot be normal and was in a new fluval edge which is a nano so one would think that this would not happen with such a small volume of water. I would imagine that this would also stress out the fish. Does anyone have experienc with this..

 

my temperature drops a degree or two at night in my 14l nano.

actually the smaller the body of water, the quicker it cools down. (and heats up)

 

my temperature drops a degree or two at night in my 14l nano.

actually the smaller the body of water, the quicker it cools down. (and heats up)