Ive a new addition..a little female bristlenose pleco, she still in her bag as i type aclimatising to my tank temperature is set at 22c will this temperature be okay for her?

Many thanks.

71.6 Fahrenhiet

It would prefer a little more warmth - 25C is ideal.

Thank you Fishlady

Ive notched it up a degree as the lights tend to heat the water by another degree even with the cover off...im not so keen on this 'Rena' smart heater that i brought it has been set at 20 on the dial but warms the water to 22..prehaps its iffy and i should replace it - grrr

Is that the danio tank by any chance? Just to check

That will be too warm for the existing fishies if so, so the spare tank may be a better option.

Don't rely on heater settings except to get into roughly the right area - go by the thermometer in the tank, so if heater set to 20 produces 22 in the tank, try heater at 18 and see what that does. But the heater may not be coming on at all - depends on how warm your house is - my danios/barbs tank doesn't go below 22 without a heater.

Mr danios are going into their new tank hopefully towards the end of next week im picking up a new external filterfor it today... Im setting up a longer but shallower tank for them its only worksout at 90L or soi think but its a good 6 inches bigger length wise.. so they have more swimming space..im going to post questions about their ideal conditions soon... Im literally going to turn this tank into 'Suzy' suckers dwelling for now..but ive got ideas for a proper sized 4/5ft tank once we move house towards the end of the year.

When i first set this tank up i didnt heat it for several weeks when i first started its cycle.. as i was researching coldwater fish but i soon realised its not the right size for the fancys i had origanally hoped for...it stayed roughly between 17-19c..so the heater is defintally working but the dial isnt acurate as i turned it to 22 last night only to find that it had rocketed to 25 this morning

Ive noticed lots of people set their heaters up diagonally?? ive got it in a corner vertically? would this make any difference do you think??

That could make a difference to a free standing heater but usually it would be the other way round i.e. would make the tank generally colder. What happens is the thermostat in the heater turns it off as soon as the water immediately surrounding it is up to temperature. So in an area of low flow it would turn off too quickly. It you have your freestanding heater placed diagonally in an area where the filter outlet is sending plenty of water past it, the thermostat should not turn itself off until all the tank water is near that temperature as different water is constantly circulating past the heater.

The thing about a rena smart heater however is that it replaces the filter intake doesn't it and so it is supposed to be vertical - it heats the water as it goes into the filter then the filter pumps out water at the correct temperature. So I think you just need to fiddle about to find the right temperature setting for the heater to produce the right temperature in the tank - though that is difficult for the next week while you have fish there with different requirements!

Oh I've just realised you may be using your smart heater as a freestanding heater not as the intake for an external filter. In which case read post accordingly!