On Fri, 17 Feb 2006 12:32:08 -0500, Mr. Gardener
wrote:

On 17 Feb 2006 07:27:53 -0800, wrote:


Mr. Gardener wrote:
On 16 Feb 2006 05:15:44 -0800, wrote:
According to my super duper temperature converter, 10 degrees C is 50
degrees F. When I think of a cold water tank, I think of household
room air temperatures, which, in this energy conscious house, (read
heating oil cost phobic), our overnight thermostat drops the house
temperature to 60 F. From my perspective, when you say cold water, you
mean really cold water. Heaters are commonly available that measure
about 6 inches, (do your own conversion), for around 10 or 12 dollars.
I have several that I've used in small fry tanks. Another option is
the ordinary back ache heating pad under the tank. I know the cheap
ones aren't thermostatically controlled, but set on low in a chilly
room, they won't overheat your water. Bringing your water up to 65 or
70 degrees would open a few more options for you. 3 or 4 white clouds
or guppies would probably do fine in that setup. Cories are happiest
when they have friends around, and I wouldn't put more than one in a
three gallon tank. Even though a fish is known to survive very cold
temperatures, there is a difference between surviving and thriving.
When we bring captive animals into our homes, we owe them a chance at
the latter. If you could somehow find a way to fit a 5 or 10 gallon
tank, you will open up several more options, and your tank will be a
little easier to maintain with the larger body of water. Though you
are willing to clean your tiny tank daily, keeping your water quality
up can be tricky in such a small tank.



-- Mr Gardener

Doh, looks like it's not really working out. To make things clearer:
temp dips to 10*c/50*F (probably not even that low) only when heating
is off (when no one's around), usually it's more comfortable room temp.
Probably a bad idea even if temps go low only rarely. I'll look at the
heating options then. BTW what did peole use before we had thermostatic
heaters? I heard one way was to use incandescent lamps, but the other
microheater options seem better. And if I can get heating I might as
well heat it to fully tropical temp and get a betta.
Also I remember I've tried keeping a banana plant in a fishbowl (w/o
fish), didn't work because it kept getting smothered in algae--used one
halogen lamp for light. But I'll worry about fancy plants later.

Seb

Sounds good. The heat and the betta, I mean. I started in the hobby in
the mid 1960's, in between demonstrations and love-ins. Heaters with
thermostats were common then, though they weren't submersible. I'm not
old enough to remember what they did before then - I think they had
their wives and girlfriends hug the aquariums on cool nights. On
weekends a few couples would get together for aquarium hugging
parties. Maybe some lit candles, a whole lot of candles. I really
don't know, and I should. Aquarium history makes for interesting
reading. All kidding aside, people probably simply heated the rooms
instead of the individual tanks. There was once a time when it didn't
cost an arm and a leg and a war to keep our homes warm.

-- Mr Gardener


In the fifties our school library had old aquarium books that told how
to keep the temperature regulated. The tanks they talked about had
metal bottoms, you were to put a candle, of a oil lamp or such beneath
the tank, and to get up about every two hours during the night to
check the temperature and adjust the position of the lamp if needed.

They were dedicated.