maverickfish
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- Oct 31, 2018
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So a little bit of background first. I'm in college and I live in the dorms. A neighbor on my floor bought six male guppies and two mystery snails, and stuck them all in a 2.5 gal without heat/filter/air, and without proper bacteria supplement and tap water purifier. Two guppies died. After hearing me talk about another girl on our floor putting a betta in a .5 gal and basically torturing it to death, she asked me if I wanted her fish and everything she had for free since she was sick of taking care of them. So now I have the four remaining fish, and the two snails.
They're currently in the same tank, but I have a 5 gal from a friend they will be moved into in about a week when I go home for spring break. I have them set up with an air pump, a few live plants in their tank, and a 7.5 watt non-adjustable heater. The heater is doing perfectly fine for now as my dorm is rather warm, it's staying at about 80F. I have a filter back at home with the tank from the friend, a second air pump that I forgot I had, but I don't believe there's a heater with it.
This heater is doing okay, but I'd prefer one that I can adjust. I mostly just bought it because it was the only one that was appropriate for the current tank with decent reviews. Now, my question is, what wattage is best for a 5 gal? Most people seem to be saying a minimum of 25w, but I'm seeing others say their 100w hold up longer than the 25w. Would an adjustable 100w be overkill, or a better investment?
I'm currently looking at two brands that are in my price range that both have mixed reviews, Aquaneat and Aqueon. The Aquaneat has 3.6 stars on Amazon I believe, and the Aqueon has 3.9 on Petsmart. My main struggle between deciding between the two is price. A 100w Aquaneat is like $8.50 on ebay, new with a two year warranty. 100w Aqueon is $19 at Petsmart, and since I'm in college I don't have a ton of money to blow here. Any suggestions on either?
They're currently in the same tank, but I have a 5 gal from a friend they will be moved into in about a week when I go home for spring break. I have them set up with an air pump, a few live plants in their tank, and a 7.5 watt non-adjustable heater. The heater is doing perfectly fine for now as my dorm is rather warm, it's staying at about 80F. I have a filter back at home with the tank from the friend, a second air pump that I forgot I had, but I don't believe there's a heater with it.
This heater is doing okay, but I'd prefer one that I can adjust. I mostly just bought it because it was the only one that was appropriate for the current tank with decent reviews. Now, my question is, what wattage is best for a 5 gal? Most people seem to be saying a minimum of 25w, but I'm seeing others say their 100w hold up longer than the 25w. Would an adjustable 100w be overkill, or a better investment?
I'm currently looking at two brands that are in my price range that both have mixed reviews, Aquaneat and Aqueon. The Aquaneat has 3.6 stars on Amazon I believe, and the Aqueon has 3.9 on Petsmart. My main struggle between deciding between the two is price. A 100w Aquaneat is like $8.50 on ebay, new with a two year warranty. 100w Aqueon is $19 at Petsmart, and since I'm in college I don't have a ton of money to blow here. Any suggestions on either?