General Care Discussion :: Submersible Heater

[Moose]

this is kind of an embarrassing question to ask, and of course I have to be the one to do it, My 20 gallon tank for my RES is only about half full, I bought a submersible heater to put in it but my question is, do i but it in vertically with half of the heater sticking out of the water or can I put it in horizontally? It's starting to get cold here in Arizona, believe it or not.

[papoopeepoo]

put it horizontally so it is completely submersed at ALL times. Water heaters heat up very quickly in air and will crack, likely resulting in an electrocuted turtle.

[rsour24]

papoopeepoo is right

[worldpeace]

Horizontally. I left mine a little out of water and it exploded. Fortunately I was doing a water change then and Charlie wasn't in the tank.

[mikee]

Of course I have to be different: mine is at a 45 degree angle with the controls out of the water. It is too long to get under water vertically. If you want to put it horizontally the only weak point is the water seal around the controls. Good Luck!

[Moose]

oh okay! thanx! I was definetly worried about electricution and if eugene or buster would burn themselves if they got too close to it,.....wait....can they burn themselves if they lean up against it?

[marisa]

I doubt they'll burn themselves. If you touch the heater while it's on, you'll find that it's not that hot. The heat readily dissipates into the water.

[gwennie]

To be on the safe side, you should have a heater guard on it unless your heater is titanium or one of the stealth ones ^^ Turtles can break glass heaters and end up burning themselves very badly.

[Moose]

oh wow, i'll look into the guard mos def

[marisa]

Unless you have a large, agressive turtle that will move the heater around, or, if you have rocks in the tank that the heater could be hit against, I really don't think you have too much to worry about, especially if the heater is suctioned to the side of the the tank. The glass that heaters are made out of is a bit stronger than regular glass. A guard is nice, but not crucial.

[gwennie]

I've seen horrible pictures of burns on turtles. I think it's always better to be safe than sorry, especially if something is really relatively cheap (less than $10 for a heater guard, easy, or you can make one yourself out of PVC piping) ^^

[drtweak]

yea had mine melt the clip that holds it to the tank when it was about 1/3 exposed during a water change...

Definatly keep as much of it in water as possable. If you have too fill it up more and get it in at a diaganal. dont want the very tip of it in the water if the contorls are at the tip