What is the BEST heater available!
 

I just dropped close to $200.00 after shipping, taxes, etc. on a Aqua Medic 250Watt Titanium heater and controller in a attempt to finally have a reliable heating system. NOT!

The wife asked me the other day why the tank was down 2 degrees. So I looked and sure enough the brand new, state of the art piece of junk heating element had stopped working!

After soaking it in the bathroom sink in ice cold water the element started working again. I don't have to tell ANYONE here that once a pce of equipment fails you can NEVER fully trust it again. Just what I need, another reason to lay in bed wondering if my tank is okay.

Anyhoo, it worked fine for 2 days but once again this morning my tank temp is down by 2.5 degrees!

I cannot express how sick and tired I am of trying to find a reliable heating system. I like to travel and I have to know that all my equipment is working properly while I am away.

If money was no issue what is the best, most reliable way to maintain proper heat?

Hmm, I used two stealth heaters on my Biotherm as well as the titanium aquamedics...neither one failed. I like my dual stage ranco controller but i broke it. Could be just a flawed element...it happens. Is it undersized for what it is doing?

I don't think that it's undersized. I have a total water volume of approx. 150 gallons. The heater element is 500 watts.

Is 500 watts enough?

I am thinking of buying 4 -250 watt Stealth heaters, running 2 of them off of the Aquamedic controller and two of them separate just in case the wonderful controller decided to crap out one day. I would set the two backup heaters 1 degree lower than the Aquamedic controller. That way they would not come on unless the controller stopped working.

I am one of those people that will get up 15 times a night to check on the tank if I am not confident that everything is working 100%, yes I am a freak. LOL

I am hoping to find something outside the realm of aquarium heaters that really kicks *ss and is totally reliable, something like a spa heater? My hot tub is always bang on, 24/7, 365, surely somebody can make something reliable for our fish tanks. This is a joke. I have wasted more money on heaters than any other peice of equipment, including Halide bulbs.

Where is the tank located? What is the warmest and the coolest temperature that room gets to? What temperature are you aiming for with your tank?

Personally, I have found that if you use multiple heaters of a lower wattage it is MUCH more reliable. If one heater gets stuck on (it happens more often than you would like to know!) then one heater alone isn't enough to cook your tank. If one fails, then there is still a backup or two that can keep the tank at least moderately warm. One heater is ok, two heaters is better, three heaters is best! Ever since I started this type of setup 6 or 8 years ago I haven't had an issue. Before I started using this method I had several heating mishaps.

Depending on the temperature of the room your tank is in, you're probably looking at about 450w total. If I were you I would use three 150w Ebo or Visitherm or other decent quality heater. I don't think the super expensive heaters are worth their price tag. I honestly don't think there's anything more reliable about them. They are superior for other reasons, but not reliability, IMO.

Get an aquarium controller! I use the Profilux and I've been happy with it. Not only does it keep the temperature dead on, but it also gives you an extra measure of safety.

I've had some problems with the stealth heaters. I had one die totally after about a month of use, and another that started releasing current into the tank after about two months. Visitherm was really good though and replaced the heaters under warranty.

The main tank is in my kitchen, the sump is in the basement. It gets pretty cool in the basement and that is where the majority of the water is. The heater doesn't seem to be working overly hard. It waits for the temp to drop 1 degree before kicking in, which seems to be every 45mins to 1 hour.

I like the idea of running numerous lower wattage heaters. I didn't consider one sticking on, that would not be good. That, knock on wood, has never happened to me.

Maybe I will try that, thanks.

Visitherm are nice because the temp is easy to adjust and it is easy to clean off the display when the coraline growns over it (so you can see what it is actually set at).

That being said, IME thermostats in heaters are are inaccurate and should be controlled by a reliable temperature controller.

I use the titanium rods two hooked up to my aquatronica controller so if one ever failed I would still get heat. I dont run a chiller so I do slowly climb throughout the day but only by a few degrees; Cant go wrong with the controller doing all the work over the crappy thermostats in the heaters

This is gonna seem unconventional, but I am 100% serious.

What is the best heater?

Another pump! I don't have heaters in my tank. Why spend money on heating, when you can spend money on a pump that will both heat the water and circulate it. They both will go through electricity. If you want you could even put the pump on a temp controller.

Think about it.

I disagree with another pump . while another pump can add heat to the water . If you have any decent water volume in your tank it wont do. and to turn you pump on when the temp. drops sounds a little crazy to me. a titanium heating rod in the sump is the best bet. Avoid glass if you can , if they break they pollute your h2o.

Another Note
 

I like my stealth's :biggrin:

I like my Stealth's too.

The only shock my I ever got from them was when I saw how cheap they are in Canada compared to the UK :)

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IMO Tronic makes the best heaters my 300watt has been going 5 years
as a general rule of thumb 2 heaters is best (incase one fails) also you know you are big enough when you are running 1 watt per gallon so for 150 gallons you should have 150 watts

I've never had an ebo jaeger fail.

I had a terrible experience with Finnex Titanium. I tried to replace it with a Jalli. When that arrived it was obviously coming from the same Chinese factory as the Finnex...so even if you switch brands, you end up with the same product.

Never trust the thermostat that is part of most heaters. They all fail eventually.

It sounds like you have the wattage correct then. They DO stick on, trust me on that! ;)

3 wpg is the "norm". If your room is REALLY warm, then maybe you only need 1 wpg.

Just cause I am the only one that thinks in this efficient way does not mean that it is wrong.

My Reefflo Hammerhead adds 6 degrees to my 330 gallon system.

My smaller 100 watt pumps add about 1 degree each. My system is very steady between 78 and 80 degrees.

It is OK though, I can be the only advanced one right now.

LMAO!! I think most reefers are micro-managers and can't handle NOT having a heater...

I tend to agree with Myka on the micro-manage statement. That's why we love redundancy.

I like your thinking LSM :idea:

Experimenting in my fishroom I could raise and sustain my tank temp 5*F simply by using a submersible pump.
In that case I was trying to remove heat inputs from a coldwater system (200 gallons) and tested inline vs submersible return pumps.

The key for most tropical systems would be turning off the pump when the temp rose during the day due to lighting heat inputs and (as suggested) running the pump on a thermostat would solve that. It's not such a far out idea actually (and shouldn't be knocked) but it does require thinking, which is always more difficult than just going out and buying... something.

I have a box of faulty heaters in my garage (collected from clients tanks) and, unfortunately, all the brands seem to be represented. I personally use Ebo Jaegers as they are an established brand and seem to be well made (ala Volvo) but even one or two of them are in "the box".

Please check out my used heater FS post in the buy and sell section :wink:

Thanks for all the replys. I think I am going to go with 3-4 lower wattage Stealth heaters. I have had good luck with them so far, knock on wood.

I like the pump idea I just don't have the room or the extra pump at this time, but I may look at this idea down the road for my new system.

I have an $8 walmart heater, works like a charm...:biggrin:

One of those cooked one of my tanks back in 96...I'll never forget that! The smell of a dead Tiger Cowrie in 98 degree water is tough to get rid of. Not to mention the rest of the livestock. Amazingly enough a single Coral Banded Shrimp was the only inhabitant to make it through the episode.

Rena heaters have never failed me. Been using them for about 4 or 5 years now. Having said that, I am tempted to switch to the titaniums when my Renas do finally go. Now that I think about it, I suppose the prudent thing to do would be to switch them out before that happens. Five years is getting on. But I digress. Maybe in the Fall.

Cheers,

I use old heaters for heating waterchange water. ;)

Had the same thing happen to me. A cheap 10 gal system from Wal Mart I was using for a QT. Came home from work to find the temp at 97 and my new fish nicely poached. Threw the whole works in the garbage!

this is a really simple heating solution I came up with for my tank...
I just have 2 50 watt heaters in my sump that are running on timers opposite from the halide lighting.
There is a visitherm 250W heater in the tank itself and it's on full time.
So the lights click off and the heat turns down at my house for the evening and the 2 50 watt heaters in my 20 gallon sump pop on and BAM......80.5 to 81 degress all day since I set this up 2 weeks ago.

things may change in the summer though, but just thought I'd share my cheap and easy heating method...

Ebo Jaeger is definitely the cream of the crop. I've used and have Jaeger heaters that very old but still reliable, plus the glass is very strong. I also like the Pro-heat Titanium heaters for use with big fish that have a tendency to aquascape and move large rocks around. A friend of mine, buried his titaniium in the substrate of his planted FW tank and had great results with his plants, plus the heater was hidden. Not sure if I would do this, but if it works...