UGF/Heater System

To: Aquatic-Plants at actwin_com
Subject: UGF/Heater System
From: krandall at world_std.com (Karen A Randall)
Date: Sun, 16 Jun 1996 18:10:01 -0400

Subject: Question on heater-driven UGF plate

> I understand some folks have had success obtaining substrate cir
> using a UGF plate with small heaters in the uplift tubes.  Talki
> with my husband this morning, he wondered how you balance the ne
> heating the tank with use of these very small heaters - do you s
> larger heater going?  How far above/below the little ones do you
> thermostat in order to both keep the tank at temperature AND all
> ones to do their substrate work?

Yes, you need a separate heater to heat the thank.  The 7.5W 
heaters will only keep a tank of about 2 1/2G warm!  (BTW, 
depending on the type of cable substrate heating you choose you 
could need a normal heater for the tank too)

You set your TANK heater at whatever temperature you want the 
water to be.  The little heaters  are non-thermostatic... they run 
continually.  With a single uplift tube/heater in a 20G tank, or 2 
in a 55G tank you will see no appreciable change in temperature 
when using this system... the heaters are just too small.  If you 
use a smaller tank, I'd keep an eye on it in warm weather, if you 
use a larger tank, you might want to add more uplift 
tubes/heaters.

Karen Randall
Aquatic Gardeners Assoc.
Boston, MA