do i need a heater for my 6 gallon aquarium?
by Aquaboy on Tuesday, April 20th, 2010 | 11 Comments
i want to put basic tropical fish in the tank.
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yes it would be very appropriate
Yeah maybe just small 50W heater, it’d be a good idea. Especially with the tropical fish, but not if you’re going to just put in gold fish.
A six gallon aquarium is tough. You really need at least a 10 gallon to keep tropical fish (anything other than goldfish and bettas) Tropical fish need a heater to maintain a constant 78 degree temp in the tank. The problem with a six gallon tank is not only keeping it warm, it can also get too warm on a hot day. The temp can go up and down making the fish sick. Tropical fish are more sensitive than goldfish.
Talk to someone at an aquarium, or research the type of fish you want to keep online first.
Most tropical fish thrive in water near 80 F
Ask the fish salesperson to tell you the proper temp. for your fishy friends
Tropical fish need a heater. You need a small filter too.Six gallons is too small for goldfish so you will almost certainly need to get a small heater. The standard reccomendation is 3 watts per gallon. There are small heaters made specifically for small tanks like yours, they are a little more expensive. If the room your tank is in has a steady temprature that dosen’t dip below about 70 degrees there are a few fish that can tolerate an unheated tank ( though I don’t reccommend it). Zebra Danios, Bettas, and common guppies sre a few you can try. You can put a betta with peaceful fish, they add nice color and are not the blood thirsty demons that many people make them out to be. Just be sure to only keep one per tank and avoid tank mates with long fins.
Yes !! My ex wife’s parents gave my daughter a small tank without a heater and all the fish died that winter. When we asked the pet shop why they said that anything over the cheap one gallon size needed a heater unless we wanted to buy new fish every week.
Check the info at the pet store on the fish you are getting. Basically, goldfish & bettas don’t need heaters. Enjoy your new fish!!
Much Love!!
You can buy a 25watt heater for that little tank, you can get it at petsmart. It will say that it is for tanks 5gal and under. It will be hard to keep tropical fish in that small of a tank. Some people seem to do just fine with a small tank though. If it is a Marineland tank with a “real” filter you may not need the heater. The filter running will kinda keep the water warm. Having the heater is the best thing to do. When you keep tropical fish you can’t do big water change like you can on goldfish, it will totally shock the fish. Fish kind of create their own environment, if you change it to much to quickly you can have problems. The two things that people do wrong in those small tanks is to over feed their fish or to add to many fish to quickly. Good Luck
Yes.
no but you will need a water purifier and some coral
A 6 gallon tank is a bit small for tropical fish. Remember with small bodied peaceful tropical fish it’s about one inch of fish per gallon. Goldfish are about 1 inch per 2 gallons. (Note that goldfish will quickly out grow your tank. You could have a single male betta (bettas don’t like other bettas), a few guppies, or some of a handful of fish that tolerate cold water. (I’m assuming the house stays in the 70s.) That said most fish do better with temps in the 75-80 range. Also everything, but the betta is going to need a filter to put air into the water. (Note that bettas love temps in the 78-82 range, and gentle filter even if they’ll survive with out them. Not having a filter means more frequent water changes.)