Keeping A Stable Temperature

[Frost]

Good morning.

If you remember, i started cycling my tank about 2 weeks ago and i think its getting close to finishing now . The problem is, over the cycling period i've found it near impossible to keep a steady temperature.

Heres my temps from my cycle so far:

95
98.6
86
84.2
87.8
86
91.4
86
84.2
91.4
84.2
87.8
89.6
98.6
82.4
89.6
93.2
86
87.8
95

So as you can see it ranges between 82-98'f which is a HUGE amount. I only move the dial on my heater by the teeniest tiniest little fraction of a milimeter and that can influence it up to 16degrees! I think my heater may be broken, or its just cheap (it doesnt have a temperature guage on it, it just has a '+' at one end and a '-' at the other end).

Would you reccomend buying a new heater, or do you have any ideas that could possibly make this heater actually work?

Thanks a bunch!

Frost

 

[Miss Wiggle]

new heater, you get what you pay for.

good thing you've learnt the lesson now before putting fish in

 

[Frost]

new heater, you get what you pay for.

I have an 18gallon(UK) tank, what is the best heater to get for this size tank? Any brands to stay away from? (preferably one with a temperature setting actually on the heater)

 

[rdd1952]

That's about 22 US gallon so you need at least a 75 watt heater. Not sure what brands area available there but Eheim generally makes good products. Visi-therm is another brand that comes to mind. I used a Visi-therm Stealth for a cycling experiment and it kept the water temp very stable.

Keep in mind that for cycling, you need more wattage than for normal temperature control. General rule of thumb is at least 3 wpg but to keep a tank consistently in the upper 80s, that wattage probably won't work. I tried a 50 watt heater on the 10 gallon tank that I was using for the cycling experiment and it just couldn't get the temperature up and keep it there. The Visi-therm I ended up using was a 100 watt and it worked like a charm.

 

[dc3]

Sounds like you got a bad heater - those ones that don't read out temperature and just go H-C or +/- are a real disaster waiting to happen - spoke to a guy earlier this week that cooked his fish using one of those.
I thought the guideline is 5w per gallon (fish-tank-guide-dot-com) - so you need roughly a 100w heater according to that. That said I've usually used 75w in a 20g before... Usually the price difference is minimal on certain jumps - couple of dollars... My favs are Ebo-Jager and Rena's Top-Light - haven't gone wrong with either in the past... RDD's suggestion of Visitherm is excellent too - got it as part of a kit in 75w format and it was spot on. Check your local message-boards and stuff for sellers - I find that in Toronto it's possible to get at least 25% off by purchasing off (reputed) sellers...

 

[rdd1952]

I thought the guideline is 5w per gallon (fish-tank-guide-dot-com)

Generally 3 wpg is considered minimum but 5 wpg is much better.

 

[adammichael]

get a tetra one 100w not tht dear off ebay

 

[vinylman]

Go for a Visitherm; no one else will give you a five year guarantee.