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My personal experience with substrate heater is very positive. In Hong Kong,
most hobbists prefer ADA's AquaSoil for their planted tanks, the down side
of ADA's Aqua Soil is that they don't last very long, they tend to break up
and the substrate would become obviously degraded in about 1 - 2 years. When
I set up my 30 Gal a few years back, I got a cheap Rena substrate heater
just to try out the benefit of substrate heater, and up to now my 30 gal is
running perfectly fine without any sign of degrading. I am now setting up a
200 gal, although I will give Flourite a go instead of ADA's Aqua Soil, but
I would still go for a substrate heater, only this time is a more expensive
low voltage model.
Cheers
Kenneth
"Marvin Hlavac" ¦b¶l¥ó
e.rogers.com ¤¤¼¶¼g...
Substrate heaters are supposed to be of long term benefit. They won't
make
your plants grow faster, better, or nicer. But they will allow you to
grow
them for many many years without getting a stale substrate.
Thanks for that. I have read in several books now about the use of
substrate heaters. In addition, I'm the type of person who reasons any
given thing out before acting. It makes very clear sense that, in trying
to mimic a natural environment as much as possible, you would like to
provide some moderate constant heat in the base, the "earth". And that
just on the face of it. In detail, substrate heaters, I'm told, create
little eddies of upcurrent or something, helping to provide circulation
throughout the substrate.
Don't take my word for it, this is just one person's opinion without
scientific experiments :-) but my guess is that substrate heaters may help
in a non-planted aquarium or even in a newly planted one. However, once
roots spread all over the fish tanks bottom most likely the benefit is
nil.
--
Regards,
Marvin Hlavac
Toronto, Canada
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