heater size?

[EMUreef]

got a 90g tank with a 50g sump. what size heater should i get?

[BK's Reef]

i would say get 2 250w's its better to have 2 smaller so if one fails the other can control the temperature. im running 2 200w's on my 90 with 40l sump(holds like 25 gallons). Id say 2 250's would be a little better for you.

[RedfordReefer]

I run 1 300 and 1 150. Just a failsafe because michigan gets COLD AS HE*L in the winter. :)

[EMUreef]

I run 1 300 and 1 150. Just a failsafe because michigan gets COLD AS HE*L in the winter. :)

indeed red, indeed, i might go the two 250 route.

[ReeferRob]

Now the question is what brand heaters do you guys trust? Up until about 2 weeks ago I relied on the Stealth heaters.

[tankdude]

I have never had a heater fail by turning off, they always seem to stay on and heat everything to 90 degrees. To tell you the truth I don't trust any of them, I just buy a new one every few years. I currently have a stealth 250 watt and in the summer I leave it unplugged.

[ReeferRob]

I have never had a heater fail by turning off, they always seem to stay on and heat everything to 90 degrees. To tell you the truth I don't trust any of them, I just buy a new one every few years. I currently have a stealth 250 watt and in the summer I leave it unplugged.

Tdude, that's a really good point. We all have hundreds of dollars invested and relying on heaters. The most inexpensive piece of equipement on the system. It would be wise to just bit the bullet an pitch them for new once a year, and always have a back up in storage.

[rmalone]

I havent had a heater fail "off", but I have had a Stealth zap me real good. If it were my tank I would do 2-250w ebo jager, best heater out there (well IMO).

[Sir Patrick]

I dont trust any heater.....hate them!!! Whoever can come up with the perfect heater is gonna be rich!!!

Yeah...Ive had bad experiances...

[Bella127]

I have had the heater issues myself. It is quite shocking that one of the big names have not come up with a good quality heater. I guess the RKL's and Apex's are supposed to keep these heaters in check , but even the controllers may be a false sense of security . The controller won't stop a glass heater from exploding or a heater from from failing . A controller only turns an outlet on and off. If the heater itself is broke , there is nothing the controller can do about that. Having two heaters is better than one , or is it?

[reefmeiser]

Imo,you are better to use 2 under sized,opposed to 1,because when a heater fails it can stick on and this gives you more time to notice a temp problem in your tank.1 correct sized heater will cause an over heat problem faster than 1 of 2 smaller wattage heaters if 1 should go bad.Recomend 2-150 w instead of 1-300w.

[fawkes]

So many have trouble with heaters that I have grown to worry about my 10G nano in the office. I stop by the office on the weekend if I am in the area, but it could be two days on some occasions before I find a problem. That said i suppose it only takes a couple of hours to kill.

The tank at the house has a Reefkeeper Lite system - so I just set the heater higher than the temperature I want and let the RKL turn it on and off. It does a fine job of managing the temperature. Not to mention that it handles the worry about a heater failing on.

There are some chillers that heat too. Maybe something like that is the better choice in the long run.

[tazzy695]

Untill recently like y months I used a single visatherm stealth 250w heater for my 90g with about 20g in the sump and it worked great but I have found that the tend to get water or salt in them after a while and fail due to stick on

I have switched to a 250w titianium heater with external controler and have had much better results I will post type later when I get home


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[reefmeiser]

nite time temps in my house have been droping to 67 deg,I run 2 150 w visitherm heaters in my 125 gal and they still let my tank temp drop from 78 to 76 deg durring lights out.maybe I should switch t wallmart heater also,cause your 50 w seems to do a much better job than what im running

[tazzy695]

One of the reasons for running more then one heater is incase one fails in the off position it won't let the tank chill and for running 2 smaller heaters is that if one sticks on it won't cook the tank as fast as one large heater

Also one reason for going with a slightly larger heater is it won't run constantly to maintain water temp like a small heater may have to

Heck chris you have been to my house and know I keep it at 65 year round as much as possible my heater runs year round also or my tank would be at about 68 to 70 on average

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[lionhead]

I dont know if this helps but I am running a 300w in my 100gal rubbermade and a 200w in 50gal rubbermaid, and a 200w in my 90gal. 2 are titanium and one is glass.

[rmalone]

Chort55 I HAVE to run 4-250w in my 180g because the ambient temp get down to 45deg in the winter at my greenhouse. I stage them out in .1deg increments with an RKL. And yes, the controllers absolutely make heaters safer, especially on the cooking the tank side of things. Even if the controller screws up and calls for heat the built in thermostat on the heater should shut it down.

[tazzy695]

usually the built in thermostat on the heater is the main one used with the controller being the fail safe

so you are doing it backwards rmalone compared to typical but heck if it works why not use it

[rmalone]

Why? not that you need it but the controller sure gives finer control of temp than the heater.

[CalmSeasQuest]

usually the built in thermostat on the heater is the main one used with the controller being the fail safe...

I was taught the opposite of this...

I set the controller to the desired temp range and set the heater thermostat just slightly higher. This saves cycles on the heater thermostat (the part most likely to fail) and allows the controller (which is generally far more accurate and reliable) managing the temp. I also stagger the the on temps by 0.5 degree so I can easily see the on/off cycles of each heater when viewing a temp chart through the Apex.

I've learned to simply accept the fact that heaters will eventually fail, and almost always in the on position. In order to mitigate the potential damage and inconvenience, I concur with the prior posts about doubling-up Heaters. This is one piece of equipment where bigger is NOT better. Use 2 heaters and under-size them (instead of 1 200W, use 2 100W) This accomplishes a few things. A single failure typically won't raise temperatures to the point of risking your tank's inhabitants, and any changes occur more slowly - increasing your odds of detecting the change prior to loss of life. It also means you have built in redundancy - The odds of both units failing simultaneously is slim and it buys you time to get a replacement.

[tazzy695]

I was taught the opposite of this...

I set the controller to the desired temp range and set the heater thermostat just slightly higher. This saves cycles on the heater thermostat (the part most likely to fail) and allows the controller (which is generally far more accurate and reliable) managing the temp. I also stagger the the on temps by 0.5 degree so I can easily see the on/off cycles of each heater when viewing a temp chart through the Apex.



I forget about the higher end controllers that do everything and are far more accurate and I can see your point I was thinking more along the line of the cheaper plug in temp controller instead of like the acjr being used as a fail safe switch :stupidme: and hence the reason I think of it being the other way around

[greenstarfish03]

I agree w/ Rmalone. the ebo jager are good heaters. I have had 2 of the 250s for 6 years w/o a single issue w/ either. I recently moved up to a bigger tank and needed a bigger heater so I grabed a 400W Hydor at the local fish store. That sucked b/c I went down to the sump tonight and got shocked. Come to find out after less then 6 months the Hydor had broken and was electricuting my sump. Everything seems fine b/c I caught it fairly quick but that heater was a waste of money.

[greenstarfish03]

You have a super walmart heater:) I run 3 heaters in my tank and I had to add the 3rd b/c the 2 -250W heaters wouldn't keep my water temp stable. If I loose a heater my temp starts droping. Granted I have close to 200G of total water, and my house thermostat is set to 65 at night.



I dont get why u guys all think 150w-250w heaters are required or even small for anything under a couple hundred gallons and say to use 2.....and then wonder why it only takes a few hrs to cook your tank if they stick in the on possition!

I used a 50w WALMART "POS" heater I paid like 10bucks for and it took my cold water straight from the outside faucet (when we filled my 180g)... and by the time I woke up (roughly 4-5hrs later) it was 78 degrees on the money (from being in the low 50s), and shut off safely... it was the same heater I used for my 20g, and 75g, which was about a year old. Got a friend using it in a tub curing rock right now, and plan to use it on the 180 again here soon.... yup I have/will be running a single 50w heater on my 180g ;)