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Under tank heating or reverse under-gravel filtering?

justissaayman said:
Thanks Christian. Just saw it and thought it had merit.

Reason im looking at heating pads is that I have been reading through my BOOK OF ADA and they have a substrate warmer which creates a convection current through the substrate and it seems like a logical idea.
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Dennerle eco-line Thermotronic Bodenfluter is what my friend recommended for substrate heat cables. For my cube tank he said I should get a corner filter, and heating cables which I should never turn off. I do not have space for an external filter. Worth looking into.
 
I installed heatcables in my tank app 15 years ago. It has a riversand mix in it. Originally i spread some clay/laterite on the bottom of the tank and covered that with the substrate app 5 cm thick. I did it to get some circulation in the substrate. The cables have been on since i installed them. Now and then a piece of it surfaces when dealing with the plants, i just push it back under the substrate. I never had problems with the substrate. Occasionally i will see some gas escaping bit it still seems healthy. How much of that has to do with the heating cable i can't say, but it has no detrimental effects i can discover. I do believe in a course riversand to be a very good substrate. It's been in there for 15 years and i never had to change it. Most detritus stays on top, but it's not so fine that it cloggs easy, doesn't damage cory's barbles and has nice natural colours, easy to plant in and doesn't influence waterparameters. Having trumpet snails helps too.
 
Edvet said:
I installed heatcables in my tank app 15 years ago. It has a riversand mix in it. Originally i spread some clay/laterite on the bottom of the tank and covered that with the substrate app 5 cm thick. I did it to get some circulation in the substrate. The cables have been on since i installed them. Now and then a piece of it surfaces when dealing with the plants, i just push it back under the substrate. I never had problems with the substrate. Occasionally i will see some gas escaping bit it still seems healthy. How much of that has to do with the heating cable i can't say, but it has no detrimental effects i can discover. I do believe in a course riversand to be a very good substrate. It's been in there for 15 years and i never had to change it. Most detritus stays on top, but it's not so fine that it cloggs easy, doesn't damage cory's barbles and has nice natural colours, easy to plant in and doesn't influence waterparameters. Having trumpet snails helps too.
Click to expand...
Hi Edvet,
Thanks for the insights. May I have some questions:
- did you ever turn off the heating cables ?
- how do you fertilize the plants? (fertilizer balls?)
- what sort of filter are you using? is it low or high tech? Is it the 400 gallon tank that you are using the cables in or the 123 cube?

Does anyone else have thoughts about heating cables?
 
This is after the first big rescape9692604514_1e26f5a023_o.jpg28738221_aquar0805052 by Edvet, on Flickr
You can see the double white cable on the right hand side behind the tank. I have kept it on for the whole time sicne i installed it. The first few years the plants could have utilized what was under the substrate, and i have only added some clay balls a few times. I did inject some EI Salts i dissolved with a needle under the substrate to see if it would make a difference, just not enough to be sientific about it. Basically i feed through the leaves.
The 400 is low tech now, but i did make it high tech for a while, see the journal.
 
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