Fish Tanks - Fish Tank Heater

Does Your Aquarium Require a Fish Tank Heater?

It would be wrong to think that a fish tank heater or aquarium heater is simply a water heater much like a common element in a kettle. Most fish tank heaters are, in fact, an air conditioning system for the tank. Rather than simply heating the water up, they carefully monitor and regulate the temperature of water.

Fish are very sensitive to the temperature of the water and would not survive unless the temperature was within the limits of their native environment. For instance, if an aquarist was working on a tropical tank, he would want to set his fish tank heater to a setting that was above room temperature (assuming he doesn't live in the tropics). In contrast, if an aquarist was working on a cold, salt water tank, he might want to set his fish tank heater below the room temperature.

Fish heaters can be classified by their position in relation to the fish tank. Internal filters are placed into the fish tank water, while external filters are placed outside the tank and the water is moved from the tank to the heater and back again.

The most common type of heater is the hanging heater, which is often attached to the back of the aquarium with the heater element placed into the water. Other varieties can be completely immersed in the water. They represent a better quality of heater as they would heat the water more efficiently but would be more expensive.

External heaters are a bit more complicated than internal heaters because they require a pump which can push the water back and forth through the heating element and the aquarium. The advantages of this arrangement are that the heater cannot be damaged or tampered with by fish or other animals in the aquarium.

Most fish require some form of water regulation in fish tanks in order to live. In most cases this is to heat the water but in some cases it could be to lower the temperature. This takes a bit of getting used to but with instruction from the aquarium supplier should be easy to do. If you feel like this is too much responsibility there are fish that can cope in normal water, notably, common gold fish are hardy and can live in ordinary room temperature water.

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