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Re: [APD] Micro plant tank ideas?



Just a thought on heating a 2.5 gallon acrylic tank... why not just use a 
small reptile mat under it. They only cost a few dollars at a lps, they will 
keep the tank a little warmer than the room temp, and most importantly won't 
take up limited space inside the tank. It will also give your plants warm feet 
(not a bad side effect). Depending on what mat you buy I guess it might get 
too warm (there are numerous cheap fixes for this problem). My guess is it 
won't get too hot... I used one on a 5 gallon and it worked well. If you try 
it and it doesn't work you are only out a few dollars. Or as long as you don't 
mess it up you can try it for a day and if it doesnt work, put it back in the 
box and return it. Yes I know there is probably room for heated debate on the 
subject of when it's "OK" to return items. However that is not a subject I 
feel to be appropriate to this mailing list. I trust that whoever reads this 
message will use their own judgement. I realize that using a heating mat 
doesn't regulate the temperature like a heater with a thermostat, but I think 
it's better than nothing.


Quoting "S. Hieber" <shieber at yahoo_com>:

> I'm not quite following your point, Wright.
> 
> What's the diff between an unregulated 5 watt wire wound
> resistor and a low wattage wire in a glass tube? Is it the
> thermostat that makes it safer or the glass? The only times
> I've ever had broken heaters, it's been the glass -- the
> GFCI probably kept things from being spectacular.
> 
> Otoh, at least with Hagen, you know were to go for warranty
> claims.
> 
> The Junior Heater is a bit of a rip, but so are most CO2
> reactors, well, very high priced plastic cyliders.
> 
> Of course, the $0.56 to mail the mini heater versus the $5
> shipping charge on the Ebay is common occurance on Ebay. 
> Lots of vendors dunk the price and boost the ship charge.
> Even some online vendors that also sell on ebay have lower
> ebay prices but end up charging more than at their online
> stores once you factor in shipping. I've seen $5
> buy-it-nows with $8 shipping charges for $6 items. ;-) 
> 
> For my own minis, I followed Karen's advice and skipped the
> heater altogether -- I didn't get cold feet, I got cold
> fish, so to speak.
> 
> Scott H.
> --- Wright Huntley <whuntley at verizon_net> wrote:
> > The heater is just
> > an unregulated 
> > 5W resistor in a *plastic* tube. The effect of 110V
> > hitting the wet sand 
> > when it fails is more than just spectacular.
> > 
> > It does *not* automatically regulate to 76F, AFAIK, and
> > you can get them 
> > from Wally World for less than the shipping cost in the
> > ebay ad cited!
> > 
> > I strongly suggest you use a low-Wattage glass heater
> > with a thermostat 
> > (25W 6" units are available) and avoid this plastic
> > hazard.
> > 
> 
> 
> =====
> S. Hieber
> 
> -  -   -   -   -   -   -   -
> Amano Returns
> to the AGA Annual Convention
> Nov 2004 -- Baltimore
> 
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