Heater recommendations?

[Luananeko]

Anyone know of a good 400+ watt heater? I'd like one that has the built in thermostat and digital display. I only found a few results on Amazon, but the one that actually had reviews was a combination of raves and people talking about how it only lasted 1-3 months before either dying or resetting itself to 88 degrees.

It's for a 75 gallon tank, but we have drastically fluctuating temps in our house so I want it extra beefy to handle the cold if the AC gets left on overnight or if the window's open and we get an overnight cold snap. There's plenty of water circulation in the tank to help keep the tank temp consistent all over, so I just need a heater with the extra OOMPH.

Haven't had a chance to look around my LFS yet for one, but I'd like to do so with some good brand names first rather than just take what they tell me and pray... Thanks for any suggestions!

 

[sealife]

Eheim jaguar 300 watt heater, heats tanks from 600 litres to 1000 litres. (150gallons to 260gallons, or something like that)

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[Luananeko]

Really, a 300W heater can handle that much? Our place can drop to around 45F overnight if the AC is going or the window is open, but I need the tank to stay around 82F... I like the reviews, just nervous that it won't be powerful enough...

 

[Mebbid]

Use this link to pick a wattage heater. The eheim jaegar is an excellent brand heater however

Aquarium Heater Size Guide

 

[Luananeko]

Use this link to pick a wattage heater. The eheim jaegar is an excellent brand heater however

Aquarium Heater Size Guide

Yikes... I'm off that chart. I'd need to be able to handle 37 degree differences in a 75 gallon tank. Does that mean I'd need like FOUR 300 watt heaters ? Or at least two 450 watt ones?

 

[Mebbid]

Yikes... I'm off that chart. I'd need to be able to handle 37 degree differences in a 75 gallon tank. Does that mean I'd need like FOUR 300 watt heaters ? Or at least two 450 watt ones?

3 should suffice. That's a huge difference in temperature

 

[sealife]

Most heaters work by 1 watt to 1 litre.
Eheim Jager heaters , work with 1 watt to 3 litres. (its the only heater im aware of that works this way.)

You could throw in 2 heaters if conditions are that bad. I have heard people doing this.

 

[Luananeko]

3 should suffice. That's a huge difference in temperature

Yeah... That's the challenge I'm running into. We have zero reliable temperature control in our condo. We have lots of electronics in the room with the 75 gallon tank. We also close the door to it at night so our kitten doesn't get in and chew through cords while we sleep. But with so many electronics, it can get too hot. If we open the window at night for ventilation, depending on the night it may drop to 45F, or it may only drop to 65F. Our in-window AC can get it pretty cold as well if we go that option.

Between our random tap water issues lately plus the random temperature, our fish are not doing so well... Stupid Oregon spring randomness I figure if I fix the temp issues first then maybe I can manage the water issue well enough without resorting to RO/DI.

 

[Mebbid]

Most heaters work by 1 watt to 1 litre.
Eheim Jager heaters , work with 1 watt to 3 litres. (its the only heater im aware of that works this way.)

You could throw in 2 heaters if conditions are that bad. I have heard people doing this.

My only argument about this is that you can only get soo much heat from a single watt of electricity. The eheim might be more efficient but I would seriously doubt the ability of a single 300w heater to handle a 30+ degree temperature drop.

 

[Luananeko]

My only argument about this is that you can only get soo much heat from a single watt of electricity. The eheim might be more efficient but I would seriously doubt the ability of a single 300w heater to handle a 30+ degree temperature drop.

So maybe I should start with 2 of the Eheims, and if it seems to struggle bump it to 3? Or would that tend to burn out the heaters from working too hard?

 

[Mebbid]

So maybe I should start with 2 of the Eheims, and if it seems to struggle bump it to 3? Or would that tend to burn out the heaters from working too hard?

It shouldn't hurt to try. It's not terribly difficult to add another heater.

 

[sealife]

That is gonna cost alot of electricity.
No other way around it though.

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[Luananeko]

That is gonna cost alot of electricity.
No other way around it though.

Eh, not horribly. It's only the equivalent of 4 incandescent light bulbs per heater. Considering all our gaming systems and computers, I think thats the least of our worries

 

[sealife]

I'm not familiar with incandescent light bulbs, but the heaters are 300watts each. So if he adds 3 heaters in the end, that's 900 watts, that will be on for around half of the day in his extreme cold weather.

Where I live, I pay $2.70 per watt a year. So if he is using 900 watts, divide by 2 (cause its only on half the day) that's 450 watts used per year, that's roughly $1215 per year on heating alone.

Did I do that correct? Or did I calculate wrong?
*pulls out calculator*

 

[Luananeko]

Again, considering all the game systems and laptops we have here that are at least as powerful as two to three 300 watt heaters combined per computer/system... I'm not too worried about a sudden spike in the electric bill. We pay 150-180 on electricity each month right now with 2 gaming laptops, a server computer, a PS4, and an Xbox One running most of the time, and the heater would only going overnight... So I think we'll be fine

 

[sealife]

Video games and aquariums... my favourite hobbies too lol

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