Tank heaters?

[SteveJP]

Well, it's getting colder, here in northern Ohio, and its time for me to buy a heater for my fw community tank. Is there a heater that the forum favors? I was looking into ordering an ViaAqua 300 watt quartz glass submersible heater (I have a 45 gallon tank). Does anyone have good/bad recommendations for this heater? Any help would be great

 

[aaronjohn20]

Not sure on them but if you do buy that one I would suggest buying it off of amazon.com

 

[callisto9]

I have the ViaAqua for my small tank and I really like it. Easy to use. No problems.

 

[SteveJP]

Is there anything special I have to watch for with a glass heater? I've used the Aqueon plastic ones on my small tanks and they were just plug in and enjoy. I saw on amazon.com that the ViaAqua 300watt was ~$16, and I didn't know if it was a worth while deal

 

[callisto9]

I'm fairly new to them myself. I bought mine based on reviews. I've only had it about a month. This is just plug in, set temp and it regulates itself.

 

[George9]

I like the aqueon pro heaters because they're not glass and mine has been working great for a year or so

 

[dmolavi]

A heads up on heaters w/ glass, when you do a water change, unplug it. Exposing it to air could cause it to shatter.

That being said, I have an Aqueon Pro. What I like about it is the LED that indicates whether it is heating or simply in standby. It also has a (somewhat) more precise controller at the top that allows you to specify a temp via a dial (instead of on some heaters that just have + or - on the dial).

 

[tomoisawatergod]

Yeah that's a true statement. Forgot to turn my heater off three days ago. Ended in the heater to smash and me running down to the pet shop

 

[dmolavi]

Yeah that's a true statement. Forgot to turn my heater off three days ago. Ended in the heater to smash and me running down to the pet shop

Ugh, that sucks I make it a habit to always unplug mine when I pull the plug on my filters. Even though the Aqueon says it's glass-free, I do it in the event that if one day I have a heater that has glass in it, I'm used to unplugging it.

 

[tomoisawatergod]

Yeah it defantly dud suck. From now on it seems that I will remember to always unplug!