Hello again. I would like to talk a little today about aquarium lighting and aquarium heaters.
Choosing the right size heater for your tank is crucial in maintaining your tropical fish health. As I discussed in a previous post dealing with some of the fish diseases, water temperature fluctuations can considerably promote fish disease. Compare it to humans who experience drastic changes in temperature and contract the common cold. Fish react the same in their enviornment. Keeping a constant water temperature in your tank will promote happy and healthy fish.
Aquarium heaters come in different sizes and shapes. What you want to look for in a heater is it's wattage. This will determine what size heater to use in your tank. The general formula for choosing the right size heater is roughly 5 watts to every one gallon of water. In other words if you have a 40 gallon tank you would need a 200 watt heater. There are other factors that play into this such as what is your constant room temperature and if you reside in a warm or cold climate but you can use this formula to get you in the ballpark of what size heater you need in your tank.
Aquarium lighting basically uses the same formula. I generally use anywhere between 3-5 watts of lighting per gallon of water in a reef system. If you come under this amount of lighting in your tank it will affect the animals that live in this enviorment. Any comments or questions feel free to post and I'll get back with you.