"Koi-lo" wrote in message
...

"Richard Sexton" wrote in message
...
You can buy heated pads for mouse cages and similar from pet shops...
=============================
Yes, thanks... but I always have 6 to 8 betta bowls in a row and want
something like an unobtrusive strip to run along the windowsill. There's
no
way I can afford that many little heaters to go under each one. Also,
the
wires would be ugly and in the way.

What you really need is a solar powered micro ground source geothermal
unit for your winddow. A little teeny tiny one.
=======================
Nah, someone needs to invent a heat TAPE for those with bowls or tanks in
a row. The reptile folks would probably buy it as well as the fish
people. I could be sold in several lengths to suit different needs.

Hrrm. Don't want to totally rain on your idea, but I don't think it will
be realized. Heat tapes (like those used to prevent metal pipes from
freezing) are notoriously difficult to (affordably) control accurately
enough to prevent large temperature swings. They're either on and pumping
out the BTU's, or their off and cooling rapidly. I don't think they'll ever
make a good basis as an affordable means of maintaining small volume water
temperature in a limited range.

In the chemical industry, they have big, wide heat tapes which can be put
onto drums;
http://www.bascousa.com/store/item.a...42&ITEM_ID=128

which are rarely good for anything. They heat indiscriminately, cause a
very hot point to develop where they are in contact with the drum, and lack
any means of circulating the material while heating (convection currents are
notoriously slow to transfer heat in a fluid medium). Your betta bowls will
behave similarly; without water flow/agitation, you'll have a uninhabitable
hot bottom (note: also where any settled decomp matter will be residing), a
tropical middle, and a vastly cooler upper strata. You thought temperature
swings are bad when they occur too quickly..? Three guesses as to what
happens when you have eight or more degrees of temperature change _within
the 2 gallon bowl itself_... :-)

DaveZ
Atom Weaver