Has Anyone Used A Heat Mat To Heat A Small Aquarium?

I'm looking for experiences, good and bad - cracked aquarium? heat spots?
This is for my betta tank, I know about junior heaters, so I'm now interested in the prospect for heat mats - what wattage to what size tank etc

don't do it.

heat mats should not be used for long term heating of any objects and should also not be subjected to heavy weights. you should also never use any heat source for an aquarium unless it is being controlled by a thermostat.

Are you talking about heat mats for reptiles or some other type? If it's heat mats used for reptiles I wouldn't suggest it because of the weight of the tank. You would have to elevate it with little things on each corner and I don't suggest that with water. Plus it's not a controlled heat. Not sure how hot they get exactly but we only used one when we had a gecko and that was with about 4 inches of sand.

I'd say stick with a heater ment for aquarium use.

you can buy thermostats for these heaters anyway and im going to go out on a limb and say this tank is small yes? if so i personally wouldnt see any issues as even full its probably small enough to lift and fairly light.

but an aquarium heater is still alot cheaper by far maybe try and find one of the smaller brands. visitherm do a very good line i have a 50w heater that is only 8" or 200mm long and the 25w is even smaller, might be worth your while looking into them instead

I know this is a bit of an old post, but I thought I'd add an opinion. Now at home, being the green fingered type, I have a propergator for plants (which consists of two large trays approx. 3ft x 2ft with a single large heatmat sandwiched between them...and no this is not my own dodgy design lol) . Now I noticed a while back that it got awfully humid, yet not hot. So I decided to do a little test and put a 12L tank inside of it, closed it up and left it on.

Now granted that it took about 4 hours to heat the tank up, but it did eventually do it and kept it stable at about 25 degrees C.
Unfortunately there was one flaw. Once you took the lid off the propergator the temperature of the tank dropped within 10 mins or so (not good if you did a water change). But I believe that this showed that the right sort of heat mats could be used, if in an suitable enviroment.

It might be an idea to recreate a larger version of the propergator and see if that would work. Getting around the having to take the lid off might be as simple as rigging up a two way water system to do water changes. I wouldn't rule out heat mats completely. Although most of not designed to take the weight of a tank, it might be an investment if specialist heat mats were created for aquaria (if they haven't already been created). Although if one were to go down the route of making a larger version of the propergator design, but for aquatic use. Then I can only dream of the possibilities for breeding gouramis, bettas etc seeing as the propergator I have at home kept the air soo warm and humid that labrynths would have no problem developing at fry stage.

If anyone would like to add any thoughts, this could be a very interesting discussion on future aqua heating design.

MermaidMel said:

I'm looking for experiences, good and bad - cracked aquarium? heat spots?
This is for my betta tank, I know about junior heaters, so I'm now interested in the prospect for heat mats - what wattage to what size tank etc

Click to expand...

I use a small heat pad covered with cloth. Works perfect for my small Beta bowl 1/2 gal. keeps the temp at 74°F. To change out some water just place some on corner of the pad for 1 day to bring up to temp.

MermaidMel said:

I'm looking for experiences, good and bad - cracked aquarium? heat spots?
This is for my betta tank, I know about junior heaters, so I'm now interested in the prospect for heat mats - what wattage to what size tank etc

Click to expand...

I set up a 60l tank with a 5w heat pad and a controller. My tank has been running for well over a year and is fine.
The heat pad sits in a polystyrene tray which is just notched out by a couple of mm so that the full weight of the tank is not resting on it and I lined the tray with foil to ensure the heat is going up.
The whole tank sits on the polystyrene tray but has feet in the corners and I wrapped the tray in black duct tape so you can't see it.
The controller works to 0.1 of a degree, and keeps my tank at 23.
The only time it will struggle is in the middle of winter where it may drop to 22 but it's been fine.

It would be interesting to see energy use and ambient temp. @Simonc99 gives no location info, and that could matter a lot. What works in each climate matters.

In the 70s, they sold inside the tank, undergravel heat mats. I never had the cash to try one, so all I can say is they vanished.

GaryE said:

It would be interesting to see energy use and ambient temp. @Simonc99 gives no location info, and that could matter a lot. What works in each climate matters.

In the 70s, they sold inside the tank, undergravel heat mats. I never had the cash to try one, so all I can say is they vanished.

Click to expand...

I live in London and the house temp is usually about 20 degrees C but in the coldest weeks the house temp may go down to 17/18C
The silicon heater pad uses 5W so very efficient even if it's on for 12 hours a day.
The pad is 6inch square (150mm) and has a max temp of 60C and seems to work really well as it's well insulated underneath so the small amount of heat can only rise.
I also love the fact that I do not have a tube heater in view.
Heater and controller run on 12v so safe.
My lights also run on the same supply and have full RGB sunrise and sunset which took me weeks to programme.
All DIY..