Jonathan:

Well… I fell for the heating cable thing a few years back. I seriously doubt I would consider doing it again.
For me, the perceived benefits just don’t outweigh the headaches. First off, the cable manufacturer stated to “take note of the cable placement because this will be the last time you get to see them” (presuming you bury them with gravel). What a bunch of hooie!

Imagine what will happen when it’s time to up-root an Amazon Sword plant or some other similar rooted plant. Regardless of how carefully I remove plants I find (no big surprise here) that the roots have grown around the cables, so the cables come up along with the plants. Even an aggressive vacuum job can bring up the cables. I get an opportunity to see my bright orange cables each and every weekend! A real thrill, especially since they’re very difficult to re-bury. Once the suction cup cable fasteners come loose under the gravel there is little chance re-fastening them, and the problems begin.

My last observation (complaint) in using heating cables centers on the additional equipment added to the tank. For whatever reason, should you care to remove all equipment from the tank, you are stuck with having to leave the cables in place. The alternative being undergoing a major (at least for me) project to remove the cables, which will wreak havoc with plants, gravel, and fish... My Plant growth has changed little since I added the cables, and my population of MTS has seriously declined. (The snails may have suffered some other mysterious malady)

For an example, I had pretty much eradicated a BBA out-break with the exception of the power cord leading down to the heating cables. The power cable was covered with algae. I would have been nice if I could have removed the cable and cleaned off the last bit of BBA in my tank….bummer.

I feel my hard earned greenbacks could have gone to a better cause.

If I had it to do over, I would at least glue the cables to the tank bottom.

Peter