Having The Good Life

2006-Aquarium-PICT2330-filter-small.JPGBy that, I meant the fishes.:)Ling has been remarking that the fishes in our tanks really do enjoy a good life. How’s that? Well, they get a nicely planted playground to swim around in, a wooden cave to hide in – the little Corydoras catfishes love to do this in their new home – they get to enjoy well-filtered water from an oversized filter, and most of all, enjoy cool air-conditioning courtesy of large piece of equipment in the living hall; a chiller.

For those of us who’re hobbyists, a chiller is an equipment that takes in water from the tank, cools it down in the same way an air-conditioning unit does, then passes it back to the tank. An internal thermostat monitors the water temperature, and switches on and off when necessary to keep the temperature constant throughout.

How is water temperature important? Well, plants typically survive best at lower temperatures than what Singapore weather is normally. Specifically, water plants could start wiltering if they were left at water of around 30 to 31 degrees. Depending on the fishes one keeps, those little critters could be at some discomfort too, though just slightly higher water temperatures are rarely fatal.

Not all aquarium keepers invest in this equipment though, and that could be due to several reasons. The power usage for the device can be high, and the device is… huge.:) In our case, the chiller is placed beside the cabinet, and is pretty much hidden by the sofa altogether, fortunately. Otherwise, the chiller with its two huge water hoses would had been quite an eye-sore.

In any case, the above wasn’t that expensive an initial investment for us. We got it fairly cheaply at $400 – a Hailea HC-300A for those who know of these things – and it’s reputed to be a fairly reliable machine for the price we paid. The long-term running cost is of some concern though, but we figured we could live with about an additional $10 of electrical use per month. After all, what price for the well-being of flora and fauna?