250w heater in 10g?

[fishb0ne]

Yeah I know, whoa!
Here's the short of it. I have a 75g dry tank that I'm setting up as a crabitat. I divided it in half, half will be water half will be land.

The water side is 22 inches long, 17 wide and 6 inches tall. It holds 9-10 gallons of water. Ambient temperature in the room is 66-68 degrees, sometimes 70. I tried warming the water with a 50w Tetra Whisper heater designed for 2-15 gallon tanks but starting at 65 degrees, an hour later it was barely at 70 degrees.
I found an old 250w Visi Therm heater that used to be used with this aquarium. Plugged it in, needless to say in about half an hour it was at the desired 78 degrees
Right now the aquarium is empty, I'm just running tests. I unplugged the 250w heater and plugged the 50w back in, I want to see, overnight, if it is able to maintain the temperature.

Is there a significant risk involved by just using the 250w?
Not sure how old the heater itself is. I inspected it, it seems to be in good shape. Do these things have a limited life?

Here's a picture of the set-up so far

 

[rich311k]

The biggest problem is if the heater breaks and sticks on the water is going to get very hot quickly. Otherwise as long as the heater functions properly you should be ok.

 

[fishb0ne]

I have a possible workaround for that. I think I will install an external thermostat that will cut power in case shtuff goes wrong.
And by external of course I mean independent from the heater but the sensor in the water.

 

[tropicalfish]

I would stick with a 50. They heat the water slowly and gradually--this I think, is to prevent too much stress on the fish.

 

[tropicfishman]

as long as it has a low level shutoff and thermostat you can put any wattage heater in any size tank if you think about it, its when you get into the higher temps the heater needs more wattage, or big huge tanks high wattage comes in handy for steadya nd quick heating

 

[fishb0ne]

Well, come to find out the 50w heater keeps the temp steady without a problem. It just seems to kick in often, but oh well. I'm just worried that it might put a strain on the thermostat and shorten it's lifetime.

 

[kickeralpine]

250watts is over kill for a 10 gallon it will heat the water to fast 50watts is fine the big heaters put out more heat then smaller heaters do so in turn it will really heat the water fast when it kicks on witch may not be a good thing