Has anyone tried or thought about heated substrate? Running the heating cords so the water flows through the substrate and feeds the plants?

Thoughts? Ideas?

I wonder if those reptile heaters that are attached to the bottom of the tank to keep it warm would not work well for that?

Not sure how the cords in the tank would work. Heaters in the tank spook me a little so I would not try it.

Good luck. Hope it is not too shocking!

Jack

I have tried this in past planted tanks. To be honest with you, I didnt really care for it. It was a pain to coil the heating cords on the bottom, then when you went to plant stuff you were always moving it arround and disslodging it.

I beleive that the roots might benefit or get extra stimulus from being heated. But in my eyes, if you have a good heater and good circulation, they will be heated anyways.

Just my 2cents

i have heard they are not worth the trouble and have little effect the concept sounds good but if you have good enough substrate no reason to get ne ferts through the roots but it you have horrible substrate you might want to do it......

From what I understand, these really dont ''feed'' the plants. All they do is increase the tempature of the roots to help stimulate growth and strong roots. Regardless of substrate quality I bleive your outcome will be the same.

what they do is increase the temp of h20 below substrate making the warmer water rise and bring the cooler water above the substrate down to create flow to provide nutrients to the roots from water above....

Jackd wrote:


If we try it, let's hope we live to talk about it! No wonder nobody discusses this!

Yes, the purpose is to increase water flow through the substrate. What I'm wondering about is, with peat, how that would work out? I think it would also depend on the temperature of the water in the tank as to how much water movement there is.

I have a book that really thinks these cables are wonderful.

The water movement would certainly be good for root development -- IMO!

Anybody going to try that for our contest?

those heating coils are a money sink. like most anything that says ADA on the label. As was said before in this thread, the main reason you MIGHT want this were if you had inadequate substrate to get the proper nutrients to the roots, and in that case.... umm... buy better dirt?

We certainly have some strong opinions on the topic!

Anybody feel otherwise?

I have strong opinions on anything that causes someone to spend gobs more money than they need to in order to achieve the same result. These coils have been known to produce good results, don't get me wrong, and they've come down in price since they were introduced, but you can still get those results many other ways and most all of those ways are a ton cheaper.

The one place I'll tell you to spend the extra money to get better plants is in your Co2!! THAT will beef up those plants a million times better than a heating coil. I'm talking pressurised, not just for volume, but consistency (something you can rarely expect from yeast setups) Since I switched to pressurised, I can see a world of difference (not to mention not having people ask me if I'm a drunk anymore on days when I dump all my old bottles lol

agreed co2.... thats the investment, and lights.... also at higher temps for discus tanks and stuff they coils have minimal effects but in cooler tanks they are good.... but lighting lighting lighting and co2!! just trying to help you spend $$ where its needed but if you have to money to throw both ways why not it will only help

yeah well there's always that lol

If I had a share of the vault, I'd probably have that massive seamless, rimless, starphire glass, custom built tank with the brand new canister filters, inline heaters, Co2 reactors, lily pipes, ADA amazonia 2 soil, heating coils, Pendant lighting, champion discus, and a butler to wipe me, but unfortunately that's not quite the case.... YET!

...so until then I'll stick with trying to do whatever I can on the cheap, and MOST things with planted aquariums can be done a lot cheaper than the elitists would let you to think. Even Co2 can be done DIY as we all know, and I've done before. It's just the one place I would put extra money FIRST knowing what I know now. (especially you Patty. for someone running that many yeast bottles on that many tanks, you should know how fast you can spend money on yeast and sugar. it's not expensive, but in the long run you'll easily outspend my pressurised system with the 20lb tank and $15 refill every year and a half lol.

I have run across the subject of heated substrate on one of the planted tank forums or in a book I have read. If I remember right they sat the tank on top of the heater instead of heating the substrate. Sorry I don't remember any more than that. I know they use that priciple in greenhouses applications for starting plants from seed.
Walter

Yeah, I'm a little behind on my co2 production. Need to get that going again this weekend. I'm not going to plant all the new tanks I'm setting up because I don't want all those bottles everywhere.