heater?

In article ,
says...
Before I touch the water I always unplug the heater.

I've never done this in my life. But I do have an RCD on my fusebox.

OK, you got me. I know what a GFCI (or GFI) is, but what is an RCD?

--
Homo sapiens is a goal, not a description

In article , eetmail-
says...
There's another good product for a few dollars by Aquarium
Pharmaceuticals called Plant Plugs. They're rockwool with a stretchy
netting to hold stems against the rockwool. You put the stems between
the netting and rockwool or into slits in the rockwool and then you bury
the whole thing in the gravel.

I use those. They work great.

--
Homo sapiens is a goal, not a description

In article ,
says...

In article ,
says...
Before I touch the water I always unplug the heater.

I've never done this in my life. But I do have an RCD on my fusebox.

OK, you got me. I know what a GFCI (or GFI) is, but what is an RCD?



http://www.acronymfinder.com/ Residual Current Device

--
Jim Anderson
( 8(|) To email me just pull my_finger

Elaine T wrote:
NetMax wrote:

wrote in message
oups.com...

I know what you mean.
I am doing alright with it, but it just doesnt make any roots at the
bottom.
I usually bury it in the gravel to hold, but it either rots or the fish
suck too much on it, and I have it flooting in the water.

I really want that plant to develop, it is beautiful.




I wrap them in lead weight as well, but in groups of about 4 to 5
(less is too thin, more and they lose their bottom leaves), but I
found that it was difficult to not damage the stems with the lead, so
I first wrap the stems in a pinch of thin sponge, and then put the
lead over that. Other tricks are to snip off the ends of each stem
(unless they already have roots), and to be very careful to not damage
the ends when planting (place them in a depression and then push
substrate in to fill the hole). You can also put a small piece of
fertilizer near the roots. I've seen these mentioned
http://www.petmeister.com/item801.htm and Elaine is using Aquarium
Pharmaceuticals Root Tabs plus Iron laterite pellets. hth


There's another good product for a few dollars by Aquarium
Pharmaceuticals called Plant Plugs. They're rockwool with a stretchy
netting to hold stems against the rockwool. You put the stems between
the netting and rockwool or into slits in the rockwool and then you bury
the whole thing in the gravel. The rockwool has fertilizer for the
first couple of months to help root development and then you start using
the fertilizer tabs NetMax mentioned. (Good memory, BTW!) They're the
best product I've ever found to help difficult stem plants stay
submerged and root - saved my otherwise impossible Rotala macrantha many
years ago.

I got the brand wrong. They're Aquarium Products.

--
Elaine T __
http://eethomp.com/fish.html '__
rec.aquaria.* FAQ http://faq.thekrib.com

On 2 May 2005 13:09:09 -0700, "
wrote:

I know what you mean.
I am doing alright with it, but it just doesnt make any roots at the
bottom.
I usually bury it in the gravel to hold, but it either rots or the fish
suck too much on it, and I have it flooting in the water.

I really want that plant to develop, it is beautiful.

I have a 10 gallon quarantine tank with no gravel. I have found some
plants do ok weighted and no gravel. A couple of times I moved the
plants to a 29 gallon community tank while I had medicine in the
quarantine tank. Again I let them float on the bottom only to find
some planted themselves, the roots just extended from the bottom stems
into the gravel.

As to your pet plant, I have no specific knowledge. How about
planting half of what you have and floating the other half and see
what happens.

Perhaps someone will have direct experience, so much nicer than making
guesses.

dick

In message , Derek Benson
writes
On Sun, 1 May 2005 15:02:38 +0100, sophiefishstuff
wrote:


my new (secondhand) tank came with a heater, which looks to be about the
right wattage for a cold winter's night, but rather overdone for the
summer... 35 (US) gallon; heater = 200W.

Is this a problem?

What I've usually seen on the spec sheet that comes inside the box
with a new heater is that the manufacturer recommends 3-5 watts per
gallon. This can also be found in various books and probably on the
Net. In my personal experience 5 watts per gallon is too much,
particularly in smaller tanks; and I'm talking about the heater
functioning correctly, I'm not thinking of a situation where the
heater gets stuck. Just for general use, these 5 watts are too
powerful.

I would never use anything stronger than a 100 watt heater in a 35
gallon tank.

Thanks for this, Derek, I appreciate it. I do wonder though if your
ambient temp might be a bit higher than mine? I'm in the UK and I don't
have the heating on at night or during most of the day during the week,
so from October - April I need a temperature hike of a _minimum_ of 8
degrees C and often more, and I wonder if a 100W heater would be
suitable for this? I'll keep a careful eye on things over the next few
weeks as the weather warms up.

If the weather is warmer (and I have to say it is not for many days a
year that the ambient temp. is close what I want the tank to be) won't
the heater just switch itself off? The original heater I had looked very
dodgy, so I got rid of it and got a (very expensive) Hydor Theo, also
200W... I take it you think this was a mistake ;-) The info on the box
recommends the 200 for the temperature hike I need and suggests the 100
wouldn't be adequate, and the fish-shop man agreed - he's someone I'd
trust, btw.

--
sophie

www.freewebs.com/fishstuff
(under construction. ish.)

On 2005-05-03, sophiefishstuff
wrote:
If the weather is warmer (and I have to say it is not for many days a
year that the ambient temp. is close what I want the tank to be) won't
the heater just switch itself off?

I'm too newbie to properly answer the question about the 8C temperature
difference, but he was referring to what happens when (it's my
understanding that it's a "when" and not an "if") the heater fails. If
it's a standard analog heater, it will probably get stuck in the on
position, and a smaller heater will likely cause less damage to your
fish. If, on the other hand, it's a digital heater, it will probably
fail in the off position, causing a somewhat less dangerous (but still
serious) situation.

NetMax has a great explanation on his site he
http://www.2cah.com/netmax/basics/heaters/heaters.shtml

--
"Usenet is like a herd of performing elephants with diarrhea -- massive,
difficult to redirect, awe-inspiring, entertaining, and a source of mind -
boggling amounts of excrement when you least expect it." -- Gene Spafford, 1992

In message iHOde.9631$fI.6272@fed1read05, Bill
writes
On 2005-05-03, sophiefishstuff
wrote:
If the weather is warmer (and I have to say it is not for many days a
year that the ambient temp. is close what I want the tank to be) won't
the heater just switch itself off?

I'm too newbie to properly answer the question about the 8C temperature
difference, but he was referring to what happens when (it's my
understanding that it's a "when" and not an "if") the heater fails.

actually, I'd understood him to be referring to exactly the opposite -
that it was too many watts for *normal usage*... I understand the
problem with the heater getting stuck on...

snick

NetMax has a great explanation on his site he
http://www.2cah.com/netmax/basics/heaters/heaters.shtml

I think Netmax though this wattage would be fine!
--
sophie
increasingly bemused...

www.freewebs.com/fishstuff
(under construction. ish.)

On 2005-05-03, sophiefishstuff
wrote:
actually, I'd understood him to be referring to exactly the opposite -
that it was too many watts for *normal usage*... I understand the
problem with the heater getting stuck on...

My mistake. I missed the part where he said that he wasn't talking
about a malfunction.

I think Netmax though this wattage would be fine!

Indeed he did. I wasn't trying to indicate that he said otherwise.

In any case, I found http://gpas.org/pub/flash/2002/june02/bobk.htm
while I was Googling. It says, in part, that "[w]hen an oversized
heater is used, it will cycle on and off more often causing an early
failure."

In any case, I'd be more likely to round down to 150W from the 175W that
"five watts per gallon" gives you than round up to 200W. I do have a
100W heater on the 20G tank (came with the kit), a 50W heater on the 10G
(didn't feel comfortable with only 2.5Wpg), and 25W heaters on my and my
wife's 5G betta tanks (couldn't find adjustable heaters of less than
25W). I'm personally planning on shooting for the three-to-four watt
range with larger tanks we'll soon be getting, but I live in Phoenix, so
not having enough heating doesn't seem like it will be an issue. Also,
my first summer with fish is approaching, and this is affecting my
outlook. It probably doesn't get nearly as warm (and probably gets much
colder) where you live, wherever that is. ;-)

If you already have the 200-watt heater, I guess it would be silly to go
out and buy a new one, all things considered.

In any case, I had completely missed the statement that he wasn't
referring to failure, so just disregard me. :-)

--
"Usenet is like a herd of performing elephants with diarrhea -- massive,
difficult to redirect, awe-inspiring, entertaining, and a source of mind -
boggling amounts of excrement when you least expect it." -- Gene Spafford, 1992

On Tue, 3 May 2005 17:40:40 +0100, sophiefishstuff
wrote:

In message , Derek Benson
writes
On Sun, 1 May 2005 15:02:38 +0100, sophiefishstuff
wrote:


my new (secondhand) tank came with a heater, which looks to be about the
right wattage for a cold winter's night, but rather overdone for the
summer... 35 (US) gallon; heater = 200W.

Is this a problem?

What I've usually seen on the spec sheet that comes inside the box
with a new heater is that the manufacturer recommends 3-5 watts per
gallon. This can also be found in various books and probably on the
Net. In my personal experience 5 watts per gallon is too much,
particularly in smaller tanks; and I'm talking about the heater
functioning correctly, I'm not thinking of a situation where the
heater gets stuck. Just for general use, these 5 watts are too
powerful.

I would never use anything stronger than a 100 watt heater in a 35
gallon tank.

Thanks for this, Derek, I appreciate it. I do wonder though if your
ambient temp might be a bit higher than mine? I'm in the UK and I don't
have the heating on at night or during most of the day during the week,
so from October - April I need a temperature hike of a _minimum_ of 8
degrees C and often more, and I wonder if a 100W heater would be
suitable for this? I'll keep a careful eye on things over the next few
weeks as the weather warms up.

If the weather is warmer (and I have to say it is not for many days a
year that the ambient temp. is close what I want the tank to be) won't
the heater just switch itself off? The original heater I had looked very
dodgy, so I got rid of it and got a (very expensive) Hydor Theo, also
200W... I take it you think this was a mistake ;-) The info on the box
recommends the 200 for the temperature hike I need and suggests the 100
wouldn't be adequate, and the fish-shop man agreed - he's someone I'd
trust, btw.

I have a tank which is 86 liters, how many gallons is this? 25 or a
bit less? The heater which came with the tank was 100 watts. I was a
bit skeptical at the time but the store guy said, yes yes this is
correct for the tank.

After a few months I noticed that the temperature fluctuated a bit up
and down, more than it should IMO and more than I like anyway. What I
discovered was that when the heater turned off, the orange light went
out so it's off, there is still some heat in the heater coil (or
whatever it's called) which must dissipate in the water. This is how
it is with all heaters, when that orange light goes out there is still
warmth in the thing, it needs to cool down. So this heater was pushing
up the temp 2 or 3 or maybe even 4 degrees above the target temp,
because of this extra dissipating heat in such a small volume of
water. I still have this heater today and there's nothing wrong with
it; I'm not using it at this moment but it functions as its supposed
to.

I replaced this heater with I think a 50 watt heater, and this
fluctuating temp problem disappeared.

My personal opinion is that it's impossible for a 100 watt heater to
have any problem raising 35 gallons of water 8 degrees over ambient
temp. But I've never done it, I keep my living room warm enough that I
can use a t-shirt, I don't want to wear a sweater every day when I'm
at home. I've also never owned a 35 gallon tank. The 100 watter would
be on a little bit longer than the 200 watter every time it turns on,
this is all. But if you've never seen this temp swing that I'm talking
about or don't see it, then there's nothing specifically dangerous
with the 200 watt heater in this tank.

-Derek