The temperature of a fish tank is an essential component that ensures the well-being and comfort of the tank’s inhabitants. Unlike other mammals or humans, fish don’t generate their own body heat and must depend on the water temperature to maintain body temperature. This makes it vital to maintain the appropriate aquarium temperature for your pets.
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Types Of Heaters
Selecting the type of heater in the fish tank is not tricky as long as you understand the variances between the different heaters. There are four primary types of fish tank heaters:
- Submersible heaters
- Immersible heaters
- Filter heaters
- Substrate heaters
The Size Of Heaters
Knowing the choice of heater, you require for your aquarium is only a piece of the picture. Heaters come in different sizes. Have a look at this aquarium heater size guide for more information. This guide can help you with calculating the proper sized heater, based on the volume within the tank and the room temperature.
Mini Heaters
Various fish species that necessitate heated water for good health (like Betta) are kept in small bowls or tanks. Mini tanks and fishbowls unfortunately can present a challenge to heat appropriately. However, a number of small heater types have been introduced over the past few years to the aquarium market.
Heating Challenges
Despite having optimal conditions, issues can still arise. One of the commonplace issues is heater breakage. If you’re concerned about this, you might want to invest in a heater guard. Another heating issue happens during Summer when the tank water temperature escalates too high. IN some cases, simply turning off the heater is not sufficient for avoiding dangerously high-water temperatures, therefore additional steps must be taken to keep the fish cool. During Winter, the opposite issue can happen. This is especially applicable if the heater is failing during this period of time and extra steps will have to be taken to keep the fish warm.
Heat Distribution Through A Home Fish Tank
There are three methods of how heat is distributed throughout a tank:
1. Conduction – Conduction is the general method of distributing heat from hot areas to the colder area, looking for a condition of thermal equilibrium. Once the water is warmed up, the water molecules achieve kinetic energy and start bouncing more. This energy distributes throughout the water in the form of heat. Water is a good heat conductor, however, most of the heat transfer in an aquarium will originate from circulation and convection.
2. Convection – Convection happens once the water becomes less dense and starts rising to the top when heated, generating convection currents. When the heater warms the water surrounding it, the water starts rising to the top and substitutes cooler water, that is denser, therefore sinking lower.
3. Circulation – The primary vehicle for transferring heat in an aquarium would be from circulating the water with a filter pump. Ideally, the filter will blend the water thoroughly to avoid any cold or hot zones from persisting in the tank.
