Lateral thinking or just plain daft. Way too many wires

[Lynnzer]

We must all suffer the problem. Way too many wires for a few tanks. I mean, if you do it the way I do, there's the heater, the pump/filter and the lights.
OK, I still use the sponge bubble filter but want some water flow so use a pump for this. So, there's at least 3 wires/plugs to each tank.
They look unsightly running down the back of each tank and that's something we can't escape. But, the heater is one we may be able to do without IF ONLY there's something akin to a temperature regulated hot-plate that all the tanks can sit on. ie external heating of multiple tanks from one source. Sort of like an electric blanket, but of course Not an electric blanket.
Anyone got any ideas on this?
Something like this?

 

[Deleted member 149562]

I stand to be corrected here but I do not think the glass used in aquariums would be able to stand direct heat from a hotplate like the one you linked. Unless the aquarium is built of Pyrex type glass, which would be extortionately expensive. Not even convinced that the silicone used in aquariums would be able to handle direct heat like a hotplate either

Heating the water with an aquarium heater is not direct and the heat is spread via the flow within the aquarium, so no "hotspots" on the glass....which would be an issue with the hotplate.

 

[GaryE]

The solution is much easier than you think. Buy a tiny bottle of black acrylic paint, do the back glass and voila, never a wire in sight. If you decide you don't like it, it comes off easily with a painter's razor blade.

It makes the fish prettier too, as the security it provides lets them dial up their colours with no fear of predators.

The old timers had a different solution. They used slate bottomed tanks with a candle under them. Glass broke, but slate held. There are electric pads used for reptiles, and every once in a while on a forum someone says they are going to use one. The problem is they never report the results. It makes me think they aren't good.

I loathe heaters, because they break down far too often, and are unreliable. But we do tend to keep a lot of our fish too hot.

 

[Essjay]

If a tank is already set up, a sheet of plastic aquarium background is easier than taking everything down to paint the back.

 

[davros]

The gravel on the bottom of the tank would absorb and distribute the heat, if you had proper thermal coupling between the "warming" plate and the bottom glass it would be fine. But you still want to measure the temps in the tank as the control point so it is still a wire of some kind into the tank.

 

[itiwhetu]

You can use a plant propagation wire for this. At one stage when I bred Fighting fish, I sat multiple jars on a propagation table. With the thermostat in one jar.

Heating Cables - Pure Hydroponics

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