for those of you who have an eclipse tank or a eclipse hex tank, how do you heat yours? is the light in the hood enough to heat the tank or do you need a heater? I am asking cus I have a eclipse 5 hex tank and the are no holes anywhere to stick a heater kinda conspicuously without the hood being askew.
I was going to set up one of my guys in it and I love it, I just have the heating dilemma.
ohh! and another ques. about the tank. how often do you need to replace the blue sponge in the hood for the filter?
Last edited by ThePearlFish; 06-22-2010 at 12:17 PM.
I have an eclipse 5G and I use an adjustable 25 watt hydor theo to heat it. There is a hole for the heater cord, but it is not obvious. If you try to lift the filter housing, you will notice that it is a separate piece from the rim of the aquarium, lift the filter out and put the heater in under where the filter once was. You will notice there is a notch in the plastic to run the cord through, if I remember correctly.
You should not replace the filter cartridge unless the floss is actually starting to disintegrate. This is where your bacteria live along with the bio wheel, so you don't want to throw it away. The reason they want you to replace it every month is because the carbon under the blue floss loses its effectiveness with time, they package them together so that you replace it every month and they get to make money off of it. Replacing the carbon is not really necessary, but if you would like to keep carbon in your filter, the best and most cost effective way to do that is to cut a slit in the filter floss, empty out the carbon, and then refill the carbon beds with fresh carbon of a higher quality. I use Matrix Carbon, which lasts quite a bit longer than the cheap stuff they usually put in filter cartridges.
I have 3 Eclipse 5 gallon tanks. I have 2 corner ones and 1 hex. The corners need to be heated. However, my hex doesn't. I'm not quite sure why... but I never have to run the heater in the hex during the spring but I do in the other two (all in the same room).
I'd get a 25 or 50 watt heater and have. I've never had the hex tank through the winter, but I would say you need to make sure the tank is 76 to 82 degrees at all times.
with the corner ones, how do you get the heaters in without disturbing the hood? there are no holes anywhere big enough to stick one in if needed. My hex right now is deadly hot so I want to see if I wait long enough (a few hours) if the temp. reaches the room temp. then see if it maintains a good temp.
Temperature fluctuations are very bad for bettas, I encourage you to use a heater with a good thermostat on it so that the temperature stays stable whether the light is on or off. If the temperature is still too hot, (above 86 or so) you could point a fan at the tank. It is surprisingly effective and very slowly lowers the temperature.
I also encourage you to look more closely around the plastic surrounding the filter. Marineland likes to put the holes for your heater cord in the filter surround.
There are a couple holes in the back of the hex behind the filter housing on the black panel that fits under it. There are also little tabs that you feed the cord through in order to have the cord come out the big hole in the back of the back cover.
I have a heater, but it was the lack of holes in my hood to put the cord in that I was concerned about, I will look closely at my tank and see if I missed something :)
I think the reason why the temp is too hot right now is that I poured warm water in the tank.
thanks! :)
eta- ah ha! I found what you guys are talking about! silly me :P thanks again!
I'm not sold on the bettas need constant temps thing. My fish are kept in my fish room in unheated bowls that range from 76-80* throughout the day and night. They are perfectly happy.
I'm not sold on the bettas need constant temps thing. My fish are kept in my fish room in unheated bowls that range from 76-80* throughout the day and night. They are perfectly happy.
I have often wondered about that. In the wild, wouldn't the temp drop somewhat at night?
Wild type betta splendens live in immense rice paddies, so if the temperature did drop, it would take a long cold spell to change the water temperature significantly. The air is very, very humid in tropical Thailand. Humid environments are almost as warm at night as they are during the day because the water helps keep it consistent. The fish we know today in our aquariums are not wild bettas, they have been selectively bred for many, many, many years--in some cases it's not totally fair to compare the two--mostly when considering behavioral differences.
I have personal experience with this, and that is why I'm such a proponent of keeping the temperature stable. When I was first starting out, I had a two gallon kit with an incandescent light and a non-adjustable hydor mini heater. I didn't realize it, but every time I turned the light on and off, the water temperature was getting warmer and cooler. The betta eventually developed a serious ich infestation as a result, and though he recovered, he was never really the same after that.
Check out the eBook Betta Fish Care Made Easy
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