Aquarium Heating.

[Adam]

Hi all,

I'm interested in knowing what type of heating and the various brands of heater/thermostat people use in their tanks. For a while now I have become increasingly worried about a heater failing on me and the dire consequences that could ensue.

I have the following types of heaters and brands: Eheim Thermo filter, Visi-Therm submersible , Interpet submersible , Jager submersible and a Hydor external heater.

I tend to go for heaters that electronically control temperature as opposed to heaters that use the bimetallic method of control. My thinking/experience is that they appear to be more accurate and reliable. I replace heaters every two years or sooner if I notice any deterioation in the housing or significant fluctuations in temperature.

It would be interesting to know what everyones thoughts/experiences are on the subject of heaters? Are there any particular brands of heaters and or type of heating that is streets ahead of the competion? Does anyone take any safety meaures such as the use of digital heaterstat controllers, remote aquarium management systems, alarms etc?

Thanks in advance for your input guys.

[Ed_R]

I've never had a stuck-on heater malfunction in over 30 years. Had a few not work, but never the other way round.
Let's see, in the 240, I have a renacal/basic 300 watt and a visitherm 300 watt- unless it's a250? I don't remember. DOesn't matter, it's almost always unplugged unless I need heat for medicating. I usually keep that tank as close to 80 as I can keep it.

I have a visitherm 250 in the salt water tank, but it's unplugged. That tank is running around 75 degrees.

I have a rena/cal basic 100 watter in the 20Long for the zebras. I keep it at 86 to 88.

I've thought about those titanium heaters with the external controls but I never got around to spending the money. Maybe in the m=next go-round;)
I've also found that powerheads and pumps always heat things up and this can really hjelp reduce the load on the heater.

[McEve]

I have only Jaeger heaters in my tanks, as I've found them to be pretty reliable. I've had a couple of other brands go bad on me, but luckily, in the off position!

One way to work around the problem with heater being stuck in the on position, is to have not one, but several well undersized heaters. Together they will be able to heat the tank correctly, but should one go bad it won't have the capacity to overheat the tank by itself. Or that's what I've heard - it might be wrong?

[Des]

Hi Adam,

In all my tanks, I have Visitherm heater thermostats, which have proven over the last few years to be most reliable and havent had one failure, yet.
All other makes have gone wrong in the past, including Hagen,Interpet, etc, including the electronic thermostats versions.
In another post to you, I cannot remember where, I pointed out that I now use a electronic temp sensor made by ETI ,with a high/low alarm, in my zebra tanks. This I think is a good safeguard .

Regards,
Des.

[KenW]

I have used many brands of submersible heaters, Ebo jager, Acura, visi-therm, and Stainless and titanium with external control from 50watts to 500 watts. They have all worked fairly well. All have gone bad on me at one time or another, luckily in the off position (touch/knock on wood). I've had some that went bad in 1 year to others that lasted more than 5 years, this includes all brands. The ones I've had the best luck with are the Ebos and visi-therms.

Within the last two years, I've started using the submersibles ones with external controls , we'll see how long these will last.

Ken