Path: utzoo!hoptoad!mejac!decwrl!labrea!agate!eos!ames!nrl-cmf!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!bloom-beacon!mit-eddie!bbn!oberon!sdcrdcf!csun!csuna!acphssrw
From: acphssrw@csuna.UUCP (Stephen R. Walton)
Newsgroups: alt.aquaria
Subject: Re: Heaters (was: Aquarium Design equipment -- rubbish?)
Message-ID: <1186@csuna.UUCP>
Date: 4 May 88 17:39:01 GMT
References: <21623@pyramid.pyramid.com> <3765@gryphon.CTS.COM>
Reply-To: acphssrw@csuna.UUCP (Stephen R. Walton)
Organization: California State University, Northridge
Lines: 31

In article <3765@gryphon.CTS.COM> richard@gryphon.CTS.COM (Richard Sexton) writes:
>In article <21623@pyramid.pyramid.com> csg@pyramid.pyramid.com (Carl S. Gutekunst) writes:
>
>>My second heater in six weeks is now dying
>
>Whats the heater for ? I didnt even use them in canada.
>

Oddly enough, I think heaters are more needed in S. Cal. than in
colder climes, because houses in the latter usually have decent
heating and insulation and thus smaller interior temperature swings.
(People always looked at me funny when I said I slept under blankets
in Hawaii until I pointed out that my house was unheated and
uninsulated and that when it got down to 60 outside it was 60 in my
bedroom too!)
   So, some numbers?  Let's say your house gets up to 80 during the
day and drops to 60 at night.  What kind of temperature swings would
you see in an aquarium of various sizes?  Larger ones would be more
stable, of course (smaller surface area to volume ratio).
   All of this reminds of a story of my own:  I had a 29-gallon mixed
tank (gouramis, barbs, corydoras, tetras, guppies, etc.) back in NJ.
One winter day we lost power for most of the day, so no heat in the
house (it was below freezing outside).  Fortunately, we had a gas water
heater so we still had hot water.  Every hour or so I drew a gallon of
hot water from the tap and added it slowly to the aquarium to keep its
temperature up.  It was still a fairly rapid swing from about 70 to 80
degrees, but I only lost one fish.   Keep it in mind if you're in
similar straits.

Stephen Walton, representing myself		swalton@solar.stanford.edu
Cal State, Northridge				rckg01m@calstate.BITNET