Hi team!

Another (dumb) question..

I live about 3 hrs drive (south) from the Tropic of Capricorn.  Temps in Bundaberg might get down to 5 degrees a couple of times a year.  Do I need a heater for cherry shrimp, maybe a school of celestial danios or chilli rasboras and a group of otoclinus catfish?  

I have read (seems like) heaps of horror stories of heaters getting stuck on and killing everything in people's tanks!!  Also have gone to great effort to clean the look of the tank so it would have to be an in line external heater!

1) is it necessary?

2) is it safe and reliable?

3) will my wife kill me? (for the extra unbudgeted expense!!)

Edited June 15, 20205 yr by Subtlefly

2 hours ago, Subtlefly said:

Do I need a heater for cherry shrimp, maybe a school of celestial danios or chilli rasboras and a group of otoclinus catfish? 

 

2 hours ago, Subtlefly said:

1) is it necessary?

2) is it safe and reliable?

3) will my wife kill me? (for the extra unbudgeted expense!!)

1) not for Shrimps, Celestial Pearl Danios and Chilli Rasboras, nor the Oto. They all like it at 22DegC, the Oto is okay at 22degC, but not colder than that. 

2) How long is a piece of string? Nothing is safe. But you can add additional measures for more fail safe. Like add a Temp sensor power plug point.

3) I dunno. Hopefully not. We just concluded you don't need a heater. But can you maintain low 22-24 degC temps? Even in summer? 

We don't really need heaters in Australia for Shrimp, maybe if you live in Tassie and keep the shrimps outside. Our issue is keeping the little buggers cool enough in summer.

Chillers are more expensive than heaters! But you got 6 months to work on that. ?

Edited June 15, 20205 yr by jayc

Nice one!  Thanks for that;)

It will look nicer as well without a heater so if you can get by without one as JacC states there isn't much point taking any risks - I have had a couple stick on, one wipedout the caridina shrimp, the other wiped out neon tetras (not the ember tetras though bizarrely) but the red cherry shrimp were ok in that tank!

As JayC also states you have a while to consider some form of cooler, but you also may not need one (so revisit that later down the line) if you have air conditioning in the house. As above my cherry shrimp survived water to 32 degrees so they are tough little critters.

Simon

I'm in Melbourne, and I have to use heaters in my tanks. Never had any issues, but I find them necessary as the temperature in the house gets down to 15 degrees celsius at night, with ducted heating keeping it from going lower. I have tropical fish though, who can't handle temps lower than 19. You might get away without a heater in Bundaberg though, not sure. If you think it'll be fine without, then probably best to not use a heater if you can help it. 

In terms of a chiller, I made it through last summer without any problems, and didn't need a chiller. Had some 40+ days. So definitely not something you'll have to worry about for a while.

Hope that helps.

Crabby?