Heater alignment?

[Patrick_G]

This 50w Aqueon 78 degree preset heater worked fine in this 3 gallon tank when it was oriented vertically. It this position it only gets to 75, even though it currently only had one gallon of water. Are heaters usually less efficient when places horizontally? 

[KBOzzie59]

One possibility, you don't have enough of a water column to allow the warm water to rise and pull cooler water to the heater.  This may be causing you heater to short cycle.  Are you measuring the temp near the heater?  If the opposite end of that tank is 75 and it is closer to 78 near the heater then I'd say it is do to the limited flow.  I just looked at the setup directions and it says it will perform better installed in the vertical position.

[Jungle Fan]

It depends on the inner workings of the heater in my experience the horizontal type usually are smaller, and more compact and usually their instructions on the largest (highest wattage) ones have said something of using them in up to 40 gallon tanks. It really depends on the arrangement of the heater element, vertical heaters are much better for high flow tanks like the Fluval 407 canister filter I use in mine, however I really always go by the manual for each heater if the instructions say place vertical, I place it vertical, if the horizontal positioning is an option and it is a smaller low flow tank I'll go with the horizontal. I at least hope that whoever the engineer was who came up with the design knows why he /she designed the heater the way they did. Just my practice in regards to heaters. I also still have a preference for Eheim heaters as they still are the ones I've had the least problems with in my 54 years of messing with those contraptions. The ones I like the least are the inline heaters, tried them twice, cut brand new canister hoses to accommodate them in both cases, and in each case ended up having to buy new hoses afterwards to replace the cut pieces after the inline heaters conked out after a few days; so I'm not a fan of inline heaters. The Oase canisters with integrated vertical heaters might be an option but so far my Fluval 407 runs like a champ..

Here's another link from my bookmarks:

https://www.hometanks.com/aquarium-heater-vertical-or-horizontal

[nabokovfan87]

On 12/11/2022 at 4:47 PM, Patrick_G said:

Are heaters usually less efficient when places horizontally? 

Heaters work based off of flow. Less flow means less movement of the cooler water to the rest of the tank and you have more of a "soak" style head load.  (I hope that whole sentence made sense)

If you have it in either direction I would always try to keep it on the sides.  For longer heaters that don't fit I stick to 45 degrees or vertical.  Depending on your own reason for orientation, maybe one of those things works better for you longer term.  If that isn't the case, I would opt for adding something to push water directly towards the heater or to push the heated water from that location to the rest of the tank. 

Here's a visual sketch.  Red being the heat dissipation from the heater.  Blue arrows being the filter flow path (yours may vary).  You can also see how the orientation of the heater affects the surface area in contact with the flow.  More contact means more efficient heating.  The longer the flow is in contact with the heat, the more efficient as well.

On 12/11/2022 at 11:05 PM, Jungle Fan said:

https://www.hometanks.com/aquarium-heater-vertical-or-horizontal

The just of this one, skimming through a few sections is saying that because a vertical heater can be located towards the top of the tank and the top of the tank is generally warmer, that is why it works better (and uses less energy).  They also say horiz. heaters use a fan to distribute the heat.  There might be some confusion there when you're talking about "a general heater" vs. "a horizontal heater".  One might be a very specific thing.

Interesting read.

[Guppysnail]

Just an odd thought. Perhaps with a smaller volume of water and not a lot of heat being added from a light and filter the starting temp of the water is stating cooler and some presets are designed to only go x degrees above start point. 
Another thought is how long you allowed the heater to sit unplugged in the water before you plugged it in. 
I notoriously forget to let heaters acclimate to water temp as most instructions say to and they “read” the water colder or hotter than it actually is because the internal parts were not the same temp as the water. 
example: my little heater I use for hatching bbs. If I plug it in right away when the new water is warm it cooks my bbs. If I wait until the water is cooled to room temp and plug it in the water gets to just the right temp. 

Edited December 12, 2022 by Guppysnail

[Mmiller2001]

I use the same heaters in the 200w version. These are definitely fickle. I've found they work better the more direct flow they are in and if placed at an angle. If I use them in direct high flow, they work perfectly and at any angle.

[Patrick_G]

Thanks for all the advice. I’m going to test @Guppysnail’s theory about preset heaters needing to acclimate. Hopefully that works. 
I can add some flow but these tadpoles are some much less agile than fish fry. They really need zero flow so they can stumble onto food. 

[Odd Duck]

Even placing a bubbler by the heater will help circulate water throughout the tank, plus oxygenate the water, clear surface film for better gas exchange, etc, and you don’t need massive air boiling out of it, just a gentle flow.

[Rube_Goldfish]

I understand that you can't experiment with animals already in the tank, but in such a small quantity of water, would something like a reptile heating pad underneath the tank work?

[Patrick_G]

On 12/12/2022 at 2:00 PM, Rube_Goldfish said:

I understand that you can't experiment with animals already in the tank, but in such a small quantity of water, would something like a reptile heating pad underneath the tank work?

Yeah, I had the same thought, but I’ve decided to just go with an adjustable temp heater that’s slightly bigger than the little 50w preset. It’s working well. 

On 12/12/2022 at 8:04 AM, Odd Duck said:

Even placing a bubbler by the heater will help circulate water throughout the tank, plus oxygenate the water, clear surface film for better gas exchange, etc, and you don’t need massive air boiling out of it, just a gentle flow.

I’m such a noob to this tadpole thing, and I’m totally neurotic about them not finding food if I add flow.😬 😆Once they start getting legs I’ll feel more comfortable adding a bubbler. 

[Odd Duck]

On 12/12/2022 at 4:00 PM, Rube_Goldfish said:

I understand that you can't experiment with animals already in the tank, but in such a small quantity of water, would something like a reptile heating pad underneath the tank work?

They aren’t terribly reliable about keeping a set temperature. Most herpers put them on temp sensors like the Inkbirds since they don’t trust them to not overheat.

On 12/12/2022 at 7:24 PM, Patrick_G said:

Yeah, I had the same thought, but I’ve decided to just go with an adjustable temp heater that’s slightly bigger than the little 50w preset. It’s working well. 

I’m such a noob to this tadpole thing, and I’m totally neurotic about them not finding food if I add flow.😬 😆Once they start getting legs I’ll feel more comfortable adding a bubbler. 

A tiny bit of flow is good. Put an airvalve on it. They’ll be much better off with that tiny bit of water circulation. 

[Patrick_G]

I transferred all the tads into the tank. It turns out there are 26 of them. The temp is hovering around 80 and they seem to be much more active than when they were in the cooler temp.