Jager 300 Watt Heater

Very true and valid points Ferdie,

At the moment I am trying to get it as perfect as possible while testing as when the next winter comes the system must be able to cope and not die on me :blink:

 

This is why I LOVE my jagers - it goes down to 18 degrees. So if you stock wisely then you can have a very happy tank at 20 degrees on the heater in the corner and the rest of the tank is at 19 degrees. Thing about keeping fish at 28 1) they eat more 2) they grow faster 3) more waist 4) Less evaporation ... now if you are breeding then you need speed. Not sure if that is what we all want to achieve. I really like the idea of the heater kicking in at a lower temp to maintain the tank not drive the heat all the time.

Now some fish DO need 28 degrees - I buy that, but do all yours really need to sit at 28? (Side note: if you do decide to do a lower norm for temp - this could be a problem for fish that you bring from an LFS the need gradual temp reduction over days not hours to adjust)

And yes weak fish are more prone to diseases at lower temps ... deal with it - better housekeeping helps to avoid these no matter what you idea.

On a side note - I wonder how many people cause more issues in a tank at WC time when they mix much colder (or geyser warm water) into a tank that was sitting at 28 degrees than those that have issue with running tank at a min of say 18 - 20 and a max at room temperature.

In the beginning I had my tanks sitting at 26 - man that was hard work.

Later F

 

@f-fish, so do you keep you tanks at 20deg? (What size tank and fish if you don't mind me asking)

I personally keep all my tanks at 25deg, the only reason I am running my system at the moment at 28deg is just to see how it copes. Once I am done with the testing and I am happy that all is working well, I will be dropping it to 25deg!

 

This winter I only had 5 heaters in the room that was prepared (read airflow restricted, tanks covered with plastic and walls insulated) amongst the 13 tanks in the room. Heaters are actually at 19 degrees but the german quality is not always 100% these days so call it 20 .. If you have a bank of 3 tanks stacked I had a heater only in the bottom. I had no heaters in the smaller tanks and did some fish consolidation and ended with 11 tanks with fish in them.

So tanks with heaters 3 x 3ft and 2 x 4ft - those without are all 3ft volume or less. (I actually have 4 jagers that I have not even unboxed cause I did not need them this year ;-)

live breeders, boesemani, angle, SAE, tera, convict, krib, danio, pleco, corry, horse face, red tail, glass fish, loaches .. - you get the idea, all the common stuff. Nothing that is going to cause me to change my ways as yet. No I am not going to count the fish hehe.

I cleared my oregon just before the winter .. probably a good time to pull some stats (no it is not the fancy one that does all the logging)

Fish room
Temp Min 13.9 Max 24.2
Lounge (other 1/4 runs a gas heater)
Temp Min 1.1 Max 29.5
Outside (under the patio roof)
Temp Min - 1.9 Max 23.9
Tank Temp in fish room (3ft - no heater)
Temp Min 17.2 Max 23.8

So with a little planning you can beat eskom and have MTS ;-)

Later Ferdie

 

Thanks for the info Ferdie I always used to think that I was the only 1 who went below the 27deg norm

 

Tank went up to almost 29deg through the night.

I am now running at my regular temp of 25deg - just need to calibrate the heater!