Plants vs. heater

[Cascade]

Can a plant be damaged if its leaves are up against the heater? If so, what would you say is the minimum reasonable distance to keep 'em safe?

[ILuvMyGoldBarb]

I've never had any plants damaged by direct contact with the heater, and every one of my planted tanks has had leaves in direct contact with the heater. I don't think the heaters really get hot enough to do any real damage.

[Cascade]

Excellent! Thanks for the quick response. I was doing another remodel and finally have a nice crop of rotala, so I was hoping to get a good background going. Glad to know I can just pack 'em in back there! :ssmile:

[ILuvMyGoldBarb]

Rotalla is one of the plants I've had in direct contact with a heater. I had a nice large bunch of it in a 125 right up against a 300w heater and it thrived.

The Rotalla is in the back right corner in this pic.
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a227/iluvmygoldbarb/PICT1115.jpg

[korith]

Rotalla is one of the plants I've had in direct contact with a heater. I had a nice large bunch of it in a 125 right up against a 300w heater and it thrived

Very nice looking tank. I have no sense of aesthetics, if there is an empty patch of substrate a plant ends up there.

Never had issues with heaters affeccting any plants by direct contact. If the water is too warm it could affect the plants though.

[Cermet]

ILUVMYGOLDBARB - You've got to give us some closeup pictures of many areas of your tank! That is outstanding.:1luvu:

[Lady Hobbs]

Funny how it doesn't seem to bother plants but a darned fish can get one heck of a burn, isn't it. Of course the fish smashes himself again it and the plants are not like that.

Darned nice tank Brad.

[DrNic]

Like the others said, for the most part plants don't mind being up against the filter. However in my experience some of the more spiny plants, like foxtail can be damaged if they are placed right up against a heater. I lost a large section of one of my plants when I moved it to hide my heater a few years back.