Heater opinions

[jerseybird97]

I'm looking for a new heater for my 75gal. I'm leaning towards 2-200 watt heater cause my tank is fairly long (4ft). I'm looking for opinions on brands like Viaaqua, Odyssea and Weipro.

 

[ezy33]

IME heaters are no place to save money. Odyssea has a poor reputation. Mine cooked my 12 gallon nano. I like Visi-Therm Stealth series at this time.

 

[gheitman]

Good idea to go with two heaters as it will help your tank be equally heated. I also recommend the Visi-Therm Stealth heaters. They are very reliable IME.

 

[jim692]

+1 for both the dual heater method and for the stealth type of heater.

Depending on your filtration system you may also have a few other options worth considering. (inline, sump, etc.)

 

[Blueiz]

Two-200 watt heaters are great, they will give you a back up if one fails and even heat. I would steer away from the odyssea brand as well.

 

[roka64]

I use Finnex titanium heaters.

 

[Smeghead113]

2 150watt heaters should be plenty

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

Agree with smeghead about wattage, and the others about not skimping. Visitherm (either the stealth or standard glass ones) gets my vote.

 

[InfernoST]

2 300's should be used not 150's, the 150's are rated for 40 gallons and the 300's for 80 gallons. If you want true redundancy use the 300's.

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

Redundancy isn't really what you're after. One of the schools of thought for using 2x heaters is that you size each of the heaters for 1/2 the load, so that combined, you have the wattage you need. That way, if one of them sticks in the 'on' position, it takes longer for your tank to get to "death zone" temperatures. That extra time gives you a longer time period to possibly find the problem and react before it becomes a serious problem. Same thing goes if it sticks in the "off" position - you at least have *some* heat going into the tank and the temps won't drop as fast.

 

[InfernoST]

Redundancy isn't really what you're after. One of the schools of thought for using 2x heaters is that you size each of the heaters for 1/2 the load, so that combined, you have the wattage you need. That way, if one of them sticks in the 'on' position, it takes longer for your tank to get to "death zone" temperatures. That extra time gives you a longer time period to possibly find the problem and react before it becomes a serious problem. Same thing goes if it sticks in the "off" position - you at least have *some* heat going into the tank and the temps won't drop as fast.

Good point, I didn't look at it that way. I prefer to have the ability to support the tank temp on one heater if the other the should fail. I have both of my 400's powered through an aux relay that is being controlled via a electronic thermostat that I added circuitry too, and is set to kill power to the heaters should the temp get above 84. I'm worried because my tank is in the basement and it does get quite cold down there in the winter.

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

You brought up a good point too... controllers versus the thermostat built in to the heater. If you're controlling the heaters using a separate temperature controller, the logic I used (2x heater, each with 1/2 the load) doesn't really hold true. Using a controller, you're bypassing the heater's thermostat and your most likely failure point has gone away. Controllers can still fail, but because their construction, that doesn't happen very often.

 

[bs6749]

Depends on what kind of fish you want and what temp you want the tank at along with the ambient temp in the room. I recommend either two Stealths or two Ebo-Jagers each 200-250W. I have a single 250W stealth in my 55g tank and it can push the temp up to 92 easily in the summer months. Being on the East coast with winter coming up I would go with nothing less than two 200W heaters.

 

[dkpate]

In my 70G I use 2 Stealth heaters. One rated for 50G and one rated for 30G. I also have a backup heater if one of them should take a crap. The Stealth heaters are SOOO consistant! I am still a newbie, but I use them in all of my tanks. I started with the Tetra Whisper ones, and they are terrible, VERY inconsistant. So in the long run, paying a little more for the heater will save you money. Good luck!