sajata

I have read some books that mention substrate heaters as promoting water movement int he substrate. other books do not mention them. what are your thoughts on substrate heaters?

in-line heaters?

the old stand by tube in the aquarium heaters?

AquaZilla

Substrate heaters are a waste of good money..

Inline heaters work very well

ukamikazu

I absolutely agree with O here.

...And think what happens when it is time for a re-scape. All those roots entangled in them? Very messy indeed.

Personally, I use an inline heater that I place on the input line of my canister filters. Very effective and it is out of the tank.

sajata

roger that!

mountaindew

I have never used them on aquariums.
And in general for aquariums I would consider it to be a marginal equipment addition.
On the other hand, I have designed large scale nursery / greenhouses for people and part of the specifications for the propagation areas required electrical outlets for heat mats that looked much like waterbed heaters. So I dont discount there benefit completely, just most of the units available for aquariums imho would do little if anything.
oh, I should add I dont even have heaters on most my aquariums. The canister filters add all the heat they need.

maverick md

AquaZilla

I use heat mats on my outdoor garden plants when I'm seeding the plants, it does help in that respect. I also tried them on 2 tanks side by side and i noticed no additional benefits in the aquarium, that was years ago so Im not sure if they have made any improvements in the last 8 or so years.
They did heat the water quite well though, so I had no need for heaters. Roots getting tangled up was a major problem

Save you hard earned bread!

__________________


The Planted Aquarium Blog