What is the BEST heater available!

[atcguy]

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.

[dsaundry]

I like my stealth's

[VFX]

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

.

[chevyjaxon]

Originally Posted by bassman

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.

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

[fishytime]

I've never had an ebo jaeger fail.

[untamed]

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.

[Myka]

Originally Posted by bassman

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.

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

Originally Posted by chevyjaxon

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

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

[littlesilvermax]

Originally Posted by atcguy

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.

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.

[Myka]

Originally Posted by littlesilvermax

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...

[mseepman]

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