Undergrovel Heater

[Anton]

Hello y'all

I am thinking about setting up a 40-60 gal aquarium with some cichlids and putting some live plants there, not much, just to see if they survive wit all the digging going on. I have heard somewhere that it is beneficial at some point to get an UGH for plants to create a vertical current, I would still put in a second 100w heater as back up; would this set up be ok or should I just forget about UGH and just put a couple of 100w heaters?

Follow up question to that - any thoughts on going out and picking up a complete package in a box from a fish store or actually setting everything up individually?

Thanx for any suggestions.

PS It is going to by my first and a half tank, I currently have a 2gal with 2 common gold fish and 2 snails, I am planning to cycle with them when I get everything together, so any good advice about cichlids is much appreciated.

PSI Dont mind me mispelling "GRAVEL" also

Edited August 14, 2009 by Anton

[jvision]

You don't really need UGH for plants - I have never had a UGH system and have grown many common and uncommon plants. I did have a bit of heat under the tank on a few tanks by having remote ballasts for my lights, and placing those in the cabinet under the tank - a lot easier than UGH cables and you don't have to worry about your cichlids chew on them while digging.

If you're going to be picking some mbuna, then you'll want to stick w. hardy plants like Java fern, Anubias, Amazon Sword, Java moss...

[syno321]

Undergrovel - when one is in the "doghouse" and doesn't suck up enough to get out.

[Cgy_Betta_Guy]

I can confirm that use of an under gravel heater (UGH) cable doesnt give 'much' discernable difference in plant growth. Being new to the hobby about 4 months ago I was doing research online and decided to 'test' a cable since I was going to be starting ground up with a new tank and figured it wouldnt hurt to give it a shot. After typing this I realize that not only has it killed quite a bit of time on a lazy friday at work (yipeee!) but this is also quite long winded so if you want to jump to the last paragraph summary and skip my 'not so scientific but trying to sound geeky even though I smrt like rock' experimentation methodology please do so now... :P

Before I go further let me just say I know this is not the most scientific method so dont slag me but feel free to comment or suggest some other way I could test it better if I ever have to rip down the tank and start from ground zero. I hopefully wont ever need to but it would be nice to have something in mind should it ever happen.

I setup the cable on half of my tank and positioned 3 amazon swords of similar leaf sizes(width and length), plant height and root length and size across the back of the tank... one in each corner of equal distance from the glass corners and one right in the middle. All were planted in same depth of substrate. The sword in the middle was meant to be kind of a control but obviously it gets much more light being in the center of the tank and under both the canopy lights. Anyways, the 2 swords in either corner were pretty much the same size after a couple months with the heated UGH side seeming to be a tiny bit fuller in leaf growth(wider leaves) while my middle sword simply got huge in both leaf dimensions. At one point I had to remove my background to clean out some moisture that had gotten in between and noticed that the roots against the glass for the UGH plant 'seemed' to go a bit deeper and had more smaller tendrils extended. The plant in the center just plain had a huge root system visible.

I have 2 different varieties of crypts planted on either side as well, Wendtii 'Mi Oya' on the UGH and I think its a Wendtii 'Tropica' on the non heated side. The Tropica seemed to grow much more full and dense while the Mi Oya seemed to struggle a bit even though it is slightly more to the center of the tank andthus more light. From what I can see along the glass on both sides for these 2 plants seems to indicate that the Mi Oya roots run much deeper and thicker than the Tropica which really doesnt seem to have much root system visible at all. Because these are 2 different variants of the crypt, I cant attribute the roots being better to the substrate heating but it certainly doesnt seem to hurt given my observations of the sword roots. Remember though that these observations are of roots that are visible against the glass.

About a month ago I decided to start a DIY CO2 setup and bought a diffuser off ebay and placed it in the back left corner where there is no undergravel heating. Since then, the swords on that side (non heated and right next to CO2 source) increased in size and has far outstripped the UGH plant in all dimensions. The leaves are now long enough that they reach the water surface while the plant on the right is still roughly 5-6 inches from the water surface. The center plant has had many many many prunings. The DIY CO2 seems to fluctuate too much for my liking so I have contemplated whether or not to go to a cannister or simply remove it altogether.

Another thing about the UGH... I do notice that during WCs that it kicks in so I think it probably helps to heat the water in the tank quicker as well as provide 'some' vertical heating currents. Also I just thought of this from casual observations but I seem to see more MTS on the UGH side but this could just be my imagination.

So long story short... under gravel heating 'might' help leaf growth a tiny bit and rooting of the plants based on my very simplistic 'roots against the glass' observations, but the better investment of the 100+ bucks that you might spend on a UGH would definitely be better spent on lighting and probably a good CO2 source of some sort.