55 gallon heater question (advice needed)

[bunebop]

Hi everyone,

I'm currently looking into replacing the heaters on my 55 gallon. I currently have about the cheapest hang-on-the-back heaters available to man and they seem to be acting up a bit and on one of my other tanks I had an issue w/ the same kind boiling fish and then not heating and all kinds of stuff. I replaced the heater on the other tank yesterday, but I'm going to order the other one online since they're not as problematic and I can wait for them to ship. I plan on still having 2 heaters in my tank... one on each side so that the tank is not heated unevenly, and I'm looking at these:

Option 1: 2 of these: http://www.bigalsonline.com/catalog/product.xml?product_id=30057;category_id=2283 I know it said up to 50 gal on the website, but I have the box here from the heater I bought yesterday and the box says that model is up to 55 gallons (which is what I have) and they also have the lifetime warranty and was highly recommended from the store

Option 2: 2 of these: http://www.bigalsonline.com/catalog/product.xml?product_id=22425;category_id=3055 It has more watts in case I ever upgrade my tank to a bigger one and they shouldn't have to work as hard since they're for bigger tanks. However they are glass and I don't know if they're any better.

They're both made by Marineland, but one is apparently "deluxe" and the other isn't. What are your opinions on these/which would you guys buy for your tanks?

Thanks a lot for any advice!

 

[Fishyfanatic]

I would definately go with the Stealth, much better than the glass ones. You could have two 150 Watt Stealths. With heaters, the general rule of thumb is 5 Watts per gal. So you'll need 275 Watts.

 

[Jchillin]

Here's a review of the Visi-Therm AA Has review pages - Who knew?

I vote for the Visi-therm. Actually, since they are made by the same company, you can't go wrong.

 

[bunebop]

Thanks for the advice. I ended up ordering 2 of the 300-watt one's yesterday. Prolly get em next week