Hazy Tank

[Paige2906]

Regarding the heater issue - could your heater just be undersized for your tank? Is the heating light continuously on? I ask because it sounds like your temperature stayed constant even though you turned the heater up, which sounds like the heater may already be working as hard as it can. There are some factors in addition to the size of the tank that affect how many watts heater you need, the most relevant one being the temperature differential between your house and the tank water. Other less notable factors are air flow around the tank and proximity to a home heating unit vs exterior wall. Your heater will wear out faster if it is always working at its peak capacity, so you may be better off getting a second auxiliary heater to help the main heater. I personally always believe in having at least two heaters per tank, because if one breaks, the temperature will decrease much more gradually and gives you time to fix the situation without shocking the fish.

Also welcome to the forum I am looking forward to following along on your fishkeeping journey!

Hey thanks for the input.

So the tank was a deal with the filter and the heater so I would have assumed that it was the right one.
Ive put the heater up to maximum now but it's only budged from 21.1 to 21.4c so not really a huge increase. I'm also not too keen on putting two heaters there as I'm running out of plugs under the unit - also the light goes on when I turn the dial up then it turns off which is I assume when it hits peak temp.

We do also have a pump but that doesn't seem to affect the temperature.

I'm off to get some plants so hopefully that will help with the life of the tank a little bit.

Thanks!

 

[mcordelia]

Excited to see what plants you find! My personal experience (not something that I see repeated a lot) is that the kit heaters are undersized. However, the reason I have found that to be true is that we keep our house pretty cool especially in the winter, so the aquarium loses a lot more heat to the surroundings.

Too bad about the plug situation under the tank, I'm sure you've already thought about a splitter Since it's still a new tank, you also have the option of keeping cooler water species such as white cloud mountain minnows, which are beautiful fish! Then you wouldn't necessarily even need to worry about the heater!

 

[Paige2906]

Excited to see what plants you find! My personal experience (not something that I see repeated a lot) is that the kit heaters are undersized. However, the reason I have found that to be true is that we keep our house pretty cool especially in the winter, so the aquarium loses a lot more heat to the surroundings.

Too bad about the plug situation under the tank, I'm sure you've already thought about a splitter Since it's still a new tank, you also have the option of keeping cooler water species such as white cloud mountain minnows, which are beautiful fish! Then you wouldn't necessarily even need to worry about the heater!

So the plants are IN! Looks so much better and the water is so much clearer after patiently waiting for the last few days. Doing daily checks and still feel the GH is a little high but after a little research can see that the tetras hardness is quite resilient.

Still having trouble with the heater, whacked it up full and then came to check the thermometer this morning and it's dropped from 21.1 to 20.6c. Ehhh. I have now moved the heater to see if it changes anything.

I feel like once the temp is getting better we are well on the way to introducing some fishies

 

[Essjay]

You said the tank was 50 litres in the first post - what is the size of the heater - it should have the watts written on it somewhere. Is there an indicator light on the heater to show when it's on?
And what brand is the heater?

 

[Paige2906]

You said the tank was 50 litres in the first post - what is the size of the heater - it should have the watts written on it somewhere. Is there an indicator light on the heater to show when it's on?
And what brand is the heater?

So I thought the tank was 50l purely because the bottle size we were using to initial fill it up was a 2l and we did it around 25 times. But the documents say that it's 70l.

The heater says its 100w which when I look online would only really heat up to a 60l tank. The shop I got it from said it should be fine. But I've got the heater running at max which I don't really want all the time if I'm honest, but the thermometer is still only reading 21.

 

[Essjay]

Tank manufacturers give the volume as the space occupied by the tank, not the amount of water it can hold. I have a small tank (currently not in use) which has a fancy frame round the outside and that frame is included in the quoted volume so instead of being 32 litres it actually hold 25 litres. And some space it used up by the substrate and decor, and the tank cannot be filled right to the brim so that loses a bit more of the volume.
When adding things to a tank, we should always use the actual amount of water, not what the manufacturer says.

The usual guideline is 1 watt per litre so in the theory 100 watts is more than enough. In my opinion, one of 2 things is faulty - the heater or the thermometer.
Is there any chance you could get to a shop and buy something likethis? Look at every one in the shop and choose from a large group all showing the same temperature. That will show whether it's your thermometer that's faulty or not.


Silly question - is your digital thermometer the type that needs to be calibrated before use?

 

[Colin_T]

So I thought the tank was 50l purely because the bottle size we were using to initial fill it up was a 2l and we did it around 25 times. But the documents say that it's 70l.

To work out the volume of water in the tank:
measure length x width x height in cm.
divide by 1000.
= volume in litres.

If you have big rocks or driftwood in the tank, remove these so you get a more accurate water volume.

When you measure the height, measure from the top of the substrate to the top of the water level.

You can use a permanent marker to draw a line on the tank at the water level and put down how many litres are in the tank at that level.

There is a calculator/ converter in the "FishForum.net Calculator" under "Useful Links" at the bottom of this page that will let you convert litres to gallons if you need it.

 

[Paige2906]

Hey guys

Thanks for all your advise. We went a got a new heater in the end and safe to say the temperature is now perfect and holding steady!

Thanks for all the pointers..

 

[mcordelia]

Oh good! Glad you were able to resolve the issue and I guess you have a spare now for whatever reason from the old one!