heater pads. good or bad?

[alans22]

i have heard many conflicting arguments about the use of the heater pads placed directly under the aquarium bottom instead of inside it, several people have said it leads to the bottom cracking. Is this true? I want this new pico of mine to be as natural looking as possible.

[Daemonfly]

I've used a small one on a 2.5g without problems. I beleive the key is to use only very small wattage ones that don't have enough power to really heat up the glass too quickly. Also, use a seperate controller you can plug the pad into.

 

You'd also want a thin sandbed. Thicker sandbeds act more like a heat "buffer"(not to mention DSBs don't work in nanos). The pad will warm up, but it will take longer for the heat to transfer through a thicker sand-bed, usually resulting in you over-shooting the intended temperature range. Once the water hits the proper temp, and your controller shuts the heater off, some heat will still be in the sand bed and raise the temp for a little while longer.

[alans22]

thanks for the info, your the only person yet to answer me, and is 1 inch too thick for a sandbed you think?

[Daemonfly]

That would be about as thick as I'd go.

[adinsxq]

heater for a pico in texas?