my heatbomb sucks

[DjDizzy]

so i got a 1 gallon glass pickle jar and a 25-watt aquarium water heater that is supposed to be able to keep a 5 gallon tank at 80 degrees when set to high. i couldn't find any aquarium water heaters that exceeded the 80 degrees capability, even if i went with a 100-watt water heater for a 20 gallon tank it still said only up to 80 degrees.

my goal is to keep the incubation chamber (12 gallon plastic container) at 85 degrees. it's only getting up to 75-76 degrees in the surrounding area but the water may be 80 degrees. what do i need to increase to get another 10 degrees in the incubation chamber surrounding the heatbomb

[helloinsomnia]

Perhaps a small TIT incubator would work. Mine is set at 81oF and I get about 80oF inside the incubator and it works out great.

[TastyBeverage]

I also recommend building a simple TiT, but if you're determined to try making your existing setup work, you might try wrapping a blanket or some kind of insulator around your chamber to see if you can keep some heat in.

[DjDizzy]

Originally Posted by TastyBeverage

I also recommend building a simple TiT, but if you're determined to try making your existing setup work, you might try wrapping a blanket or some kind of insulator around your chamber to see if you can keep some heat in.

insulation - good idea! but then again simple physics would make me believe that best case scenario with this setup is going to be 80 degrees with no heat loss due to some type of good insulation (per tastybeverage) or being close as possible to the heated water like in a TiT (per helloinsomnia). either way i'm not going to get the temp i was looking for initially i'm sad to say. looking back on it, i didnt really know how these heaters work and i was hoping that heat would build up and climb to a higher temp than 80, but now i know these things have a built-in thermostat that helps them regulate the temp so there's no hope of going over 80.

i'm concerned because my jars are growing at an extremely slow rate because they're at 73-74 degrees. perhaps an extra 5 degrees would make all the difference - i'll try a TiT but want to make sure i have this right first:

so for the TiT method do i basically get 2 plastic containers that are stackable with each other. then fill the bottom one with water to cover a surrounding inch or so of the lower half of the top container then attach the heatbomb to the bottom of the bottom container (tricky wording ). so then in my case, as long as i stay below using 5 gallons of water (may have to upgrade my heater) then i should be able to warm the lower half of the upper container within a degree or so of the heated water's temp?

u guys rock, thanks

[helloinsomnia]

http://cgi.ebay.com/Thermasure-200-W...QQcmdZViewItem

[DjDizzy]

Originally Posted by helloinsomnia

http://cgi.ebay.com/Thermasure-200-W...QQcmdZViewItem

nice! problem solved, thanks man