heat lamps?

[TheRealAndyCook]

Anyone ever used a "heat lamp" for there tank?

Its my understanding that in a FW river/lake you have areas close to shore lines that heat up more then deeper sections of water...Obviously the idea I'm about to talk about would never work on anything <100gal unless you were running a chiller but here it goes.


So the idea is, you have one side of your tank with a heat lamp above it you would want to set your tank heater to 2 or 3 degrees less then the temp you would want the tank to be at.... during the day that one side with the heat lamp would be a few degrees over the temp you want...warmer like it would in nature...and then at night it evens out with the rest of the tank.


Just an idea, wondering if anyones tried anything like this

 

[ozzyboo]

Never tried it but an interesting idea although would the water movement, via filters powerheads, in such a small body of water,compared to nature, allow one side of the tank to become any hotter that the rest.

 

[TheRealAndyCook]

Never thought about that, guess you'd need a massive dead zone for it to work.

 

[bbortko]

I would think that there wouldn't be a very efficient transfer of heat if you have glass lids. You'll probably heat the room more than the tank.

 

[TheRealAndyCook]

I have a reptile style lid. Prevents fish from jumping but allows me to run the tank open.

 

[bbortko]

It just amy work then, though I still feel the room temp will also rise. I think the real question is does it matter. I'm not a doctor, bet I'm fairly confident in saying that I'm better off at 70 degrees 24/7 than having the temp drop 30 at night.

 

[m1ste2tea]

heat lamps will def make a difference if it is directed towards a shallow area that is in a dead zone... such a setup is what I once had for my turtle habitat. I installed a sheet of plexiglass about 2 inches below the waterline, it was in one of the corners of my tank, and believe it or not, even in a 55 gallon tank the water was warmer to the touch in that area. I had a 26 watt uva/uvb compact fluorescent bulb and a 50 watt red heat bulb at approx 10 inches away I changed it not long ago because that setup was growing too much algae on the plexi sheet. I was also running a much less powerful filter then.

I am not sure if this sort of setup is useful for fish, the goldfish that lived in that tank then freaked out if they ever found themselves in that shallow area.