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The majority of tropical
fish thrive in temperatures of 76 to 80 degrees Fahrenheit and it is
important to provide an appropriate and stable temperature suitable for
your livestock's requirements. We stock a number of traditional
heaterstats which have an integrated heating element and thermostat,
together with a number of new innovative products to help create and
maintain the desired temperature. During the cooler months it is
important that your heater has sufficient capacity to maintain the
temperature of your aquarium, even on the coldest of nights. As a guide,
you should provide one Watt of power for every litre of water, for
example a 200 litre tank requires a 200W heater when the aquarium is
located within a centrally heated home. Should this not be the case, you
will need to increase the Wattage used. It is recommended wherever
possible to use two lower wattage heaters rather than one high watt
heater. Whilst modern heaters are extremely reliable and have up to a 5
year guarantee to reflect this, should you have two heaters and one of
them fail, you should be able to spot the problem with sufficient time
to remedy the matter.
One problem aquarists often encounter in the summer is elevated water
temperatures. This causes problems as the higher the temperature your
aquarium water is, the less oxygen can stay dissolved within it. This
problem often manifests itself with fish gasping for air at the top of
the aquarium; and if left unmanaged will result in the loss of
livestock. Usually this happens at night in planted aquariums when
plants reverse their photosynthesis stripping out the remaining oxygen;
so when the fish keeper looks into the tank in the morning, all of the
livestock has perished. In such circumstances, additional aeration
should be provided with an air pump.
Another temperature related problem is often
encountered by reef keepers during the summer months, as temperature
elevation is compounded with the use of high intensity lighting creating
a catch 22 situation. Marine inverts require light in order to
photosynthesise, without which they will die, however elevated
temperatures will create coral bleaching such as will be encountered due
to global warming. Unfortunately the only effective long term solution
to this problem is the installation of an aquarium chiller. Although
these units are costly in the short term, it is the only effective way
to ensure a safe water temperature is maintained, and the investment in
livestock can often significantly outweigh that of a chiller making it a
false economy not to have one should problems be encountered. |
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