The heater
The heater I use in my aquarium is of the brand Aquarium
Systems, type Visi-therm (see picture on the right). This heater is a
conventional heater of 100 Watt. The reason why I've chosen this heater is
mostly because of the low price (in comparison with heating cables). Because
when I started my aquarium heating cables were to expensive (5 till 10 times as
much as a conventiona
l
heater), I've chosen for a conventional heater. The reason why I've chosen the
visi-therm heater is because of its direct-reading temperature setting, which
means that the desired temperature is indicated on a thermometer scale. This
eliminates guesswork. Although I can still recommend to check the temperature
with a normal thermometer, because the water temperature is mostly not exactly
the same as the set point of the heater.
Although I've chosen for a conventional heater, heater cables had been a better solution in my case. This because my aquarium stands in a room with mostly a low temperature (between 10 and 15 degrees Celsius). Therefore the plants in the winter often grow slower than in the summer because of so called 'cold feet'. This because a conventional heater only warms the water and not the soil. Heater cables would solve this problem. If you are thinking about buying an aquarium it's wise to think which kind of heater should be the best solution. This because if the aquarium is in use, it's not possible to install heater cables (are placed be need the soil), when it turns out that the plants have cold feet.