How long to heat an aquarium?

djbids

Medium Fish
Feb 2, 2008
56
0
0
Cayucos Beach, California
#1


I have a 36 gallon aquarium and put a Marineland Visi-Therm 200 Watt Heater in on Thursday night 7pm. Keep in mind this is a new tank for me, never have done this before and have spent and entire week going back and forth getting all the right stuff for the tank. Including a return on an aquian heater because it would never go on. So I researched and All the reviews on this heater, Visi-Therm are excellent but I was under the impression it would heat pretty fast since I have a 200 Watt in a 36 gallon tank. The water temp was at 45' degrees on Thursday night and it is only up to 52' degrees. It has not been 48 hrs yet. Is this going to take a week to get to 77-78' degrees. I have the heater submerged straight up and down, all the way in the water in the back corner since it cannot touch any decorations in my tank. The filter is an aqua clear power filter which hangs outside the tank taking water from the tank and putting it back in from above. I thought maybe this could be cooling down the water and keeping the heating process to a minimum. I have minimum space opened at the top of the tank. There is absolutely no information on the internet as to how long it takes to heat an aquarium. So if this is a stupid question, I give up. I want to start cycling but can't get any fish until I get the heat stabilized in my tank.....
 

djbids

Medium Fish
Feb 2, 2008
56
0
0
Cayucos Beach, California
#4
I live in a beach house with 39 windows. Hard to find a location away from a window. I have it upstairs in my office. I have a corner not hit by sun and not a huge window near it, but do have a small window near it. It is covered well and I feel no cool draft etc. The room is about 68 degrees but sometimes get cold at night. We tend to keep the heat off on this side of the house. I know the heater is working as I put my hand in and felt it and it was warm to the touch. It is one of the black covered heaters. I guess I could have a fishless tank. haha..
 

djbids

Medium Fish
Feb 2, 2008
56
0
0
Cayucos Beach, California
#7
is that wierd for a 36 gallon with a 200 watt heater. I dont want to fry my fish. I thought maybe a problem with it placed in the back, the water sucks up not far from it and comes back down from the top of the filter and i wondered if it is just not circulating enough although my plants (all fake at this point seem to have movement) anyone have the same problem?
 

TabMorte

Superstar Fish
Jan 17, 2008
1,470
0
0
#8
I put my heater right beside my filter so it does circulate the warmed water around the tank personally and I put my thermometer at the furthest point from the heater.
 

djbids

Medium Fish
Feb 2, 2008
56
0
0
Cayucos Beach, California
#9
ok. so placement is correct. my thermometer is the inside stick on, not a digital and it is placed across the tank from the heater. I have one on the outside also but it reads 78 and I know its not 78. My inside says 52.
I just unplugged my heater just now and moved to another plug outlet. This is a new house to us and we have a few problems maybe the plug works part of the time..never heard of that but with all the stuff we found in this house, you never know. All thoughts are welcome and thanks so much for all your input
 

TabMorte

Superstar Fish
Jan 17, 2008
1,470
0
0
#10
I think your thermometers are off it shouldn't be 52F in that tank if the room is 78! My kitchen drops down to about 67 at night and my tank even when I had no heater never went colder then 69F
 

brian1973

Superstar Fish
Jan 20, 2008
2,001
3
38
Corpus Christi, Texas
#12
I agree with Tab that you may have a bad thermo.. if your stick on say 78 I would guess that ur somewhere in the 70's...and water in the 70 degree range feels cold to me but all my tanks read 77 or so and they all feel cold to me when i change the water, but all the therms read the same. I use one in the tank and then a sticker type on the outside also, they always read within a few degrees of each other.
 

djbids

Medium Fish
Feb 2, 2008
56
0
0
Cayucos Beach, California
#13
ooh.. my $3.95 thermometer has failed me. I wondered if I could just be having rotton luck. I already took back another heater where the light never came on. I will try a new thermometer. are the digital's worth it?? I invested in quality everything else just not the thermometer. That makes me feel better. I don't have any other room and we are trying to stabalize the heat in here. Thanks for all your help...I'm sure I will have more questions later.
 

Lotus

Ultimate Fish
Moderator
Aug 26, 2003
15,115
13
38
Southern California
home.earthlink.net
#14
I've had digital thermometers be "off" by a degree or two. The ones with alcohol in them (red strip, the traditional kind) are usually good. Check what temps all of them say in the store, just to make sure the one you get isn't really out of whack.

A 200 watt heater should be enough to heat the water about 10 degrees (or a little more) above the temperature of the room.
 

TabMorte

Superstar Fish
Jan 17, 2008
1,470
0
0
#15
I use an alcohol one too and it seems to be pretty good. I can tell the heat of my tank with my fingers now usually though!

If it was 52 it would be so cold you couldn't stand to have your hand in it.
 

FroggyFox

Forum Manager
Moderator
May 16, 2003
8,589
10
38
42
Colorado
#19
I totally agree, get a new thermometer. I have some digital ones that seem to do pretty well. Never had luck with the stick on kinds. A tank should be the temperature of the room within a day or so even if you put really cold water into it to begin with...so if at any point your thermometer isn't at least matching what the room is, you know it is wrong. btw, having that power filter will usually heat the water up a tiny bit if it changes the temperature at all.
 

Big Vine

Elite Fish
Feb 7, 2006
3,895
9
0
47
Florida
#20
For what it's worth, I've always had the best luck with the glass thermometers you stick on the inside of the tank wall. In recent months I got a Coralife digital thermometer---sticks on outside of tank but has a temperature probe you stick underwater. Seemed accurate at first, but then it gradually read colder and colder...eventually dipping down to close to 10 degrees colder than what the actual tank temperature was! I was quite disappointed, to say the least.

At first it made me think I had a problem with my Visitherm Stealth heaters, but once I confirmed it was a faulty digital thermometer, I simply stuck with the traditional glass ones (the kind with the red strip Lotus referred to earlier).

BV