heaters for a 125 gal

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an interest in aquariums or fish keeping!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.

Zagz

Aquarium Advice Addict
Joined
May 17, 2005
Messages
17,107
Location
Saskatchewan, Canada
I have 2 250 watt heaters and a flourescent light strip and I have the heaters set at 74 F. The temp in the tank stays at 80 F I have the lights on from 6-7 am, from again for 1/2 hour at lunch, then from about 5 pm to bedtime whatever time that works out to be. Are these heaters too much?Should I only use one of them?
 
room temp is 72-74, I tried changing thermometres to make sure that the readings were correct. I better check the wattage of the lights, I never have bothered, no plants cichlid tank.
 
My lights were on for a good 24 hours a couple of days and temps never rose... Room temp in my house is about 76°F I have 40 watt bulbs... 2 of them so like 80 watts more or less... Im at a loss
 
I would ignore the numbers on the heaters and adjust them as if they were not there.. the old submersible heaters didnt have numbers, you just set them by the thermometer in the tank.. I wouldnt think that 500 total watts would even be enough to heat a 125.. I personally like to have 5watts per gallon. HTH
 
Thanks everyone, I have been ignoring the numbers as the tank is warmer than the numbers indicate. LOL well I guess I will find out for sure come winter here. Ugghhh can't believe I said that word!
 
If you are already ignoring the numbers and checked the temperature with a different thermometer, than I would say the only things that's left is that your heater isn't calibrated right or broke.
 
Here's a simple way to see if your tank is gaining heat. Put a bucket of water next to it overnight. Cover the bucket if you want to exclude evaporative heat loss. Measure the bucket, measure the tank. If they are different, then your tank is gaining heat from either the lights or the heaters. I would bet on the heaters. Do they ever indicate that they are on even though the tank is above the temp set? I don't think a flourescent ligt would add 6 degrees of heat to a tank.
 
I will give that a try Tom, good idea, thanks. The heaters rarely are on, or at least the light that indicates they are on is rarely on.
 
Back
Top Bottom