Heating and Lighting
The basic essentials for comfortable aquarium living The
majority of tropical fish thrive in temperatures of 76°F
to 80°F and it is important to provide an
appropriate and stable temperature for your livestock. We stock a
extensive range of combined heater/thermostats as well as a number of
new innovative products to help create and maintain the desired
temperature.
During the Winter months it is important that your heater has
sufficient capacity to maintain the temperature of your aquarium, even
on the coldest of nights. As a general guide, you should allow 1 Watt
per litre of water, for example, in a normal centrally heated home a 200
litre tank requires a 200W heater. If the room is other than a normal
Living Room or Lounge then it may be necessary to increase this to
ensure that the heater can maintain temperature during cold snaps.
It is recommended that wherever possible, two lower wattage heaters
should be used rather than one higher powered unit. Whilst modern
heaters are extremely reliable, they do occasionally fail, usually in
the ON condition. Using two smaller heaters usually allows the fish
keeper to spot the problem before the fish get "Cooked".
Whilst most fish are not overly fussy about lighting, or lack
thereof, it is important not only to the overall biosphere, but also to
the owner who may like to see his or her fish on occasions.
Today's technology has come a long way from the simply incandescent
lamp suspended over a bare glass tank. Modern lighting is
available in a huge range of spectrum, Colour Temperature and
intensities. The standard florescent tube, (T8) is slowly being
superseded by the more intense T5 models, and with colours available to
simulate the full range of aquacultures, from the clear mountain stream
to the vast silt laden river basins or deep African rift lakes.
For the marine keeper Metal Halide discharge lamps provide
intensities suitable for even the most demanding corals, and in colour
temperatures as high as 20,000°K. For many
marine invertebrates this extreme light is necessary in order for
the organise to produce its food by photosynthesis.
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