Product Review - AquaOne HeatersI thought it would be a good idea to make weekly product reviews a feature of my blog. So for the next few weeks on a Tuesday I am going to be reviewing various aquarium products and equipment. The first product on the chopping block, is the Aqua One aquarium heaters that you can pick up from most fish and pet stores around Australia. This is a quote I took directly from the Australian Aqua One page in regards to their heaters. "High quality and economical heaters that are completely submersible with double insulation. Complete with heater thermostat with easy to use temperature settings, easy to read temperature guide and automatic shut off and 'on' light. Suitable for marine and tropical aquariums." I would say that this is a fairly accurate summation of the Aqua One range of heaters. Really, the only point of contention I have with this quote is in regards to their promises of a 'high quality' product. The pros and cons below are based on my own experiences with the Aqua One range of heaters. I used to own over two dozen of them in various wattages (I think from 25 to 150 watts), and have several still operating in some of my tanks. Pros Economical 3 year warranty Automatic thermostat Relatively compact compared to other brands Readily available from most stockists Cons Often struggle to maintain set temperature Slightly 'cheap' feeling construction Prone to unexpectedly failing The biggest issue I have had with the Aqua One range of heaters, is that they often seem to struggle to maintain a set temperature. This occurs even when a heater of the correct wattage is being used. I found that I had to set my Aqua One heaters several degrees hotter than the desired temperature if I wanted to reach it. Sometimes even this isn't enough, and I would have to run a higher wattage heater than I need for a particular tank as a way of compensating. I also have had at least three of these heaters stop working. There was no damage done to these heaters, and they were all under two years old. It's just that gradually over time they seem to lose the ability to heat. Fortunately, I have yet to have an Aqua One heater malfunction and overheat a tank. Overall, the Aqua One heaters are a decent heater for the budget conscious. There are better performing brands out there, but they often come in at double the price. Because they tend to be a bit more compact than other brands of heaters, they can be useful for tanks in the 4-40L range.
However, due to the issues I have had with the longevity and quality of this product, I will not be purchasing further heaters from Aqua One. Next week's review: 'Supachlor Water Conditioner' Fish Keeping Goals for 2013/214I breed my wild bettas primarily for my own enjoyment and use. Occasionally I might sell fish on to make room for others, but up until this point I have tended to keep almost all of the fry that I have managed to raise until adulthood. However recently, I have a lot more fry in my grow-outs than I really have space for. As such, I have found that my goals have shifted slightly. Instead of keeping all the bettas I will be trying to get at least two confirmed male/female pair from each spawning and selling on the others. Of course this is easier said than done. I get very attached to the fish that I have bred and so I find it very hard to let my wilds go to anything but the best of homes. I think in the future I am going to have to learn to be tougher, as it is going to be sooner rather than later that I will run out of room for everyone! Currently overrun with Betta burdigala fry and juveniles Anyway, below is a list of goals I hope to achieve over the next year or two. Probably the hardest will be sourcing pairs of livida and tussyae to round off my collection. I haven't seen the former sold anywhere in Australia or on AB for ages now. At least not in guaranteed male/female pairs. So below I've outlined a list of goals I would like to achieve over the next couple of years. Some are going to be more achievable than others, but at present I am going to be focusing only on keeping and breeding only coccina complex species. I am hoping that one day, I will have the entire complex bar Betta miniopinna, which currently seems impossible to find on the aquarium trade. Goals |
AuthorLocated in Melbourne, Australia, I currently keep and breed a number of species from the coccina complex. Archives
November 2017
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