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Got a bare bottom 4x14x18 setup ready for a peppermint bristlenose colony however I am having real trouble getting it to reach temperature.

The setup is as follows:

Otto PF-800N in the rear left corner with it's outlet going across the back glass.

2x300w heaters at 45 degree angles on the back glass.

Cheapo "600LP/h" at the front and an airstone next to it.

Last night I got the tank to 22 degrees by jacking the heaters up to 26 but this morning the temperature dropped back down to 18.5 with the heaters off.

I've set up numerous large and largish tanks and this one will be the death of me!

BTW we have several large rocks in the tank already (ranging from 20cm to 35cm in length) and they're quite thick, would this be affecting the tank reaching temperature?

P.S. I would normally assume that it's the thermostat in the heater but since it's 2 heaters I cannot figure it out (and no they're not close to each other so they're not heating each others water)

EDIT: Have rectified the issue for the time being, the tank is coming to temperature and hopefully I can maintain it.

Just to give you the info, the tank came with an Aqua One 300w (it appears the thermostat on this is gone as I can tell it to turn on by jacking the temp right up but it never holds) the 2nd heater was a cheapo from eBay ...the international power adaptor has broken so that's why that is out of order. Lesson learned, don't ever rule out the utterly improbable as it is likely probable with fish keeping

2nd EDIT: Also remember that digital thermometers require battery changes. Just replaced the thermometer and it's reading 25.6 degrees. Have shut down the heaters to a lower level and removed one of them... poor black moor that I have in the tank! Hopefully temp stabilises in a short time.