Which heaters? How many?

[3n1]

Main tank is 110gal, refugium is 50gal. Heater/s will be in the refugium. Please dont say Jager's. I keep getting condensation in them on my FW tanks. Of course I'm on a small budget, so nothing too fancy. I'd like to have "Out-of-tank" controls though. Digital readout would be another plus.

Your suggestions?

[fareforce]

I would use 3 x 150 Stealth Heaters... (http://www.drsfostersmith.com/Product/Prod_Display.cfm?pcatid=12060&N=2004+113767) I use to use glass ones, but have switched all of my tanks (5 of them) over to stealth only.. They have kept my tanks with-in 1 degree of where I want it.

[Snowboarda42]

Visi-Therm Stealths, they're submersible, inexpensive, and plastic. Oh and they kick @$$.

Go with at LEAST two small ones, that way they don't have to work as hard and have less chance of failing.

[3n1]

Three 150's?

Wouldnt two 250's be as good?

[fareforce]

yes and no...

With 2 250's if one happens to fail, it could overheat your tank... with 3 150's if one fails it might heat up your tank an extra degree or two.. not nearly as bad...

[fareforce]

ohh yeah.. they need to be mount at least 3-4" apart from one another.. otherwise the heat from one will turn it's next door neighbor off.. =)

[kmf507]

Why not just put one in your overflow and one in your sump? Three seems like overkill.

[3n1]

Now I'm totaly lost.

If one were to fail, the other would work hard to keep the temp up, maybe even falling below temp some.

BUt Over heat??? How does that happen?

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9776764#post9776764 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by fareforce
yes and no...

With 2 250's if one happens to fail, it could overheat your tank... with 3 150's if one fails it might heat up your tank an extra degree or two.. not nearly as bad...

[3n1]

OH, I think your meaning if one was to have it's themostat stick, staying on constantly. Does that ever happen? I have had heaters quit working completely, but never had one over heat.

[szwab]

they can either fail by not working or by sticking in the on position get 2 undersized heaters so that neither one can damage the tank should it fail.
in general heater thermostats are cheaply made kind of ironic considering their importance. Ideally they should be controlled by a seperate controller.

[fishguy1005]

personally i try to avoid getting glass heaters. too many bad experiences with breaking glass in my tank and the trouble that causes.

[jenajet]

yep no glass. Luckily it is warm enough now I don't even run my heater. Temp only drops 2 degrees overnight.

[reeftankjunkie]

I agree with SZWAB, if you can, get an external controller. I had one that you could plug a couple of heaters into, but it had its own temp probe and a digital temp readout. You could set the controller to turn on at 78 and off at 81, and if it failed, the thermostats in the heaters themselves would turn the heater off. I got it from a friend, but he said he only paid about 40 bucks for it.