The World's Most Trusted Source of Information About the Fascinating World of Fishkeeping Jump to Site Navigation A good range is 76° to 80°F (25° to 27°C). A few species need to be kept several degrees warmer, and some species require temperatures a few degrees cooler. A thermometer is vital. A stick-on type enables you to check the temperature whenever you look at the aquarium. For tropical fishes a reliable heater is necessary, at least during the colder months of the year. Many aquarists in temperate climates face the opposite problem during the dog days of summer—keeping the aquarium from overheating. Both submersible and hang-on heaters are available. All are thermostatically controlled, and many can be set for specific temperatures. Hang-on models are less expensive, since submersibles must obviously be water-tight. Most common are heaters in glass tubes, but titanium and stainless steel heaters are gaining in popularity due to their unbreakable design.

Some heaters have simple warmer-colder adjustments, and you must adjust them until your aquarium is stable at the desired temperature. Others have an adjustment designated in degrees to set a precise temperature without trial-and-error adjustments, and still others have one or more preset temperatures you can choose. For normal room temperatures, figure on 100 watts for a 20-gallon, 175 watts for a 55-gallon, and 300 watts for a 100-gallon. If the room gets quite cold, use higher wattages. The water temperature should be stable. Notice that the smaller the tank, the more watts per gallon are needed. For small tanks, 5 watts per gallon are recommended, while larger tanks can get by with 3 watts per gallon. Extremely large tanks may need even less than that. This is because small bodies of water lose heat much more quickly than large ones. Think of how much more quickly a cup of coffee will cool off than a hot bath. A 55-gallon tank will lose heat about half as fast as a 10-gallon tank.

You can use two heaters that total the needed capacity. If one sticks in the on position, the water will not overheat as quickly, and you have a better chance of saving your fish. If one heater dies, the other will be able to partially maintain the temperature, again giving you more time to discover the problem. If your setup has a sump, that is a great place to put the heater, and if you have a plumbing circuit you can use an in-line heating module.best fish tank water pump In hot weather, the first thing to do is to increase water movement. fish tank games on facebookThe warmer water is, the less oxygen will be dissolved in it, but at higher temperatures, your fish’s metabolism will be higher, increasing their need for oxygen. best fluorescent light fish tank

Moving water picks up more oxygen, and it also evaporates more, which cools the water. If ambient conditions bring aquarium water into the high 80s for prolonged periods, you should take steps to cool the water, and the simplest way is to replace the normal aquarium top with screening and position a fan to blow across the water surface. This greatly increases evaporation. You will have to top off the tank frequently to replace the evaporated water. 55 gallon fish tank glassYou can use slightly cooler water than what is in the tank, but only a few degrees, or you may shock the fish.55 gal fish tank stand plans A further step would be to freeze water in plastic bottles and place one at a time into the tank or in the filter. aquarium co2 kit best

Make sure the bottles are small enough that the water does not cool down too quickly or too much—extreme changes in temperature are more harmful to your fish than constant high temperatures. If your home remains very hot for long periods of time, you will need a chiller for your aquarium. Some are drop-in models that hang on the tank rim and put the cooling coils directly in the aquarium. Others operate completely outside the tank, and the water must be pumped from the tank, through the chiller, and back to the tank. A reef aquarium is the most heat sensitive. Because reef invertebrates require extremely stable conditions, they can succumb quickly in a prolonged heat wave. In fact, most tropical fish can easily handle very warm temperatures for a week or two, but marine invertebrates typically cannot. For this reason, chillers are most common in reef setups. Chillers also provide an opportunity to keep cool-water fishes and invertebrates, freshwater or marine. There are many fascinating species from temperate habitats that require cooler-than-room-temperature systems.

Classic Q&A: Temperature for Corals What is the best temperature for corals? Can they take temporary cooling or heating? Steve Smith (Ogden, Utah) Most experts today recommend 80°F as the optimum temperature for corals, although older sources unadvisedly recommended lower temperatures. Corals can often take cooler water better than water that is too warm. Lighting and pumps can add a lot of heat to a system. One solution is to equip your tank with a chiller to counteract hot days and heat from lights and pumps. Chillers are expensive, but heat buildup can kill corals, so their worth is obvious. Careful selection and placement of lighting and pumps can help prevent problems. Log in to TFH Digital Aquarium Basics Temperature ControlNext to food and maintenance products, the biggest cost of maintaining an aquarium is the energy consumption required to run the equipment. Filters, lights, powerheads, heaters, protein skimmers, air pumps, water pumps, uv-filters etc., more or less constantly consume energy.

Based on a freshwater fish only aquarium at about 72 F, the total consumption for a small tank (10 Gallons) is about 150 kWh a year. A medium tank (30 Gallons) will run between 150 – 200 kWh per year, while a large aquarium (55 Gallons) needs 200 – 400 kWh per year. These values are calculated while considering the basic equipment required and serve as an average only. The biggest consumption is used for the lighting system which accounts for approximately 45% of the total bill. Usually the heater comes in second at about 35% of the total cost. Filters commonly run at about 12% while airpumps, etc. account for the remaining 8%. Again this is based on the average aquarium setup. Lighting is the only component in the aquarium that doesn’t run on a 24-hour shift. Furthermore, the lighting expenses can easily be controlled by the lighting time as well as the equipment we use. The common fluorescent light bulb (15 – 40 Watts) that is provided with most hoods doesn’t significantly add much cost.

Planted tanks with higher lighting requirements that use power compacts (30- 100 Watts) or VHO fluorescent bulbs (75 and 160 Watts) and/or a combination thereof obviously will lead to higher power consumption. A reef tank may even run on metal halides which run from 150 – 1000 Watts – and that will quickly add to the bill. Heating an aquarium can also be expensive. The larger the tank the more heat is required. Further, a tropical fish environment usually requires a higher water temperature making it more expensive to heat compared to non-tropical fish tanks. For example, a 30 Gallon tank heated at 72 F (22 C) will consume approx. 110 kWh per year. The same tank heated at 82 F (28 C) will consume about 440 kWh per year. That is 4 times as much! Water pumps start at 3 Watts and easily go up to 400 Watts depending on the gallon per hour (gph) rate.Some ball park rates are 10 Watts for 200 gph and 30 Watts for 300 gph. 150 Watts can be consumed by 600 gph and up. Powerheads, air pumps and filters are low in consumption starting at only 3 Watts and generally not exceeding 25 – 50 Watts for the heavy duty models.

UV filters run between 8 – 130 Watts and up. Generally spoken, a fish only aquarium runs on a rather low cost. Tank size will matter and add on cost, so will a more and more densely planted tank, a saltwater tank and ultimately the reef tank. To save on the energy cost and consumption, lighting can be adjusted to more energy efficient bulbs and a change in lighting. A planted tank may do just as well running on a 100 Watt bulb instead of a 150 Watt bulb. This would already be a savings of 1/3 of the total lighting cost. In many cases the heater can also be turned down by a degree or two without affecting the fish. This can safe a lot of energy in the long run. In well heated environments a heater might not even be necessary during the day or heating period. Water pumps can be reduced to lower gph ratings the same applies to uv-filters. Choosing energy efficient equipment and comparing them with other makes and models can yield substantial savings in the long and sometimes even short run.

To calculate the energy consumption of your aquarium, you will need to know the watts per equipment and the overall running time. The running time of the heater can either be observed in measuring the actual running time or by estimating. 15 minutes out of every hour (6 hours total per day) for lower temperatures or 30minutes out of the hour (12 hours total) for higher temperatures. This will of course vary greatly, depending on your room temperature. Watts multiplied by hours will give you the daily wattage per equipment. (1000 Watts equal 1 kWh) The cost of 1 kWh can be found on most electric bills. The cost of one kWh should be calculated by adding up all the rates that end with “per kWh (that will include the transmission, distribution, and generation charges). (Watts x hours) : 1000 x kWh cost x 30 = monthly electrical cost of the aquarium The exact usage of electricity for each piece of equipment can only be determined by actual readings using an ampmeter, which measures the actual energy used and not the energy based on the maximum output.