Re: UG heater design

To: Aquatic-Plants at actwin_com
Subject: Re: UG heater design
From: nfrank at nando_net (Neil Frank)
Date: Sat, 7 Oct 95 07:32:02 EDT
>
>From: ibi007 at lion_connect.more.net (Allen Sandifer)
>Date: Fri, 6 Oct 1995 21:39:19 -0500
>Subject: Re:Yet another plant tank design 
>
>My thought was that by heating the water under the substrate it would rise
>through the substrate drawing cooler water down into the lower water
>chamber. In theory it should work much like heating cables.
>
>Does anyone have any comments about this concept, good or bad and has anyone
>tried it yet?


This is one of the the concepts is used in Japan. Amano's company, in fact,
sells a stainless steel plate into which ceramic heaters are placed.  The
heater is connected to a separate thermostat. I don't know how its efficacy
compares to the use of heating cables, but it was designed to be less costly
and more marketable than heating cables.  I personally, would not try it
with a glass heater, even as a April fool's prank! The idea is somewhat
similar to the Christensen/Randall idea. (developed by Claus Christensen and
described by Karen Randall). They place small 7w heaters in the lift tubes
of a UG filter.
Karen is very happy with the results.

BTW, there are some aquatic plant specialty shops in Japan which still do
not use or even try to sell UG heaters. Their successes is a good as any I
have EVER seen, and thus they are among those who still do not use UG
heating. :-) When I asked the shop owner about it, he replied that he did
not think it was needed and despite the obvious potential profits, did not
want to sell the customer something they did not need. Obviously, a cultural
difference :-) .



Neil Frank   Editor of "The Aquatic Gardener"  Aquatic Gardeners Association
 Visit the AGA home page at <http://blake.oit.unc.edu/~fish/aga/>