Reliable Heaters....

[Reefer2727]

Will be running my first tank with a sump. Plan to have heater in the return area. I have heard of people having 2 heaters. I would assume this would be in case one of the heaters stopped working?

Is 2 heaters recommended? Or would I be better off going with one good heater. I plan to have a controller so I would hope that I will be well aware of the temp at all times.

Are there any heaters that anyone would recommend? I know every heater I have ever owned quite honestly has not been very good. They have all had terrible thermostat dials and are next to impossible to dial in. Do most people use the controllers for the heaters? I guess this would take out the awful built in thermostat problem out of play?

So any good heaters or are they all essentially the same?

Thanks

[Reefer2727]

Also....forgot to mention my system will be around 100 gallons total. How many watts for the heater?

[detroit_fan]

I would use 2, hobby grade heaters are not the best and most will fail at some point. I use a ranco temp controller because as you said thermostats are normally off. You can pick up a single stage ranco used for pretty cheap and it will give you good peace of mind. I use jager heaters, but some people like visi-therm stealths.

[Reefer2727]

If I was to use 2 heaters, would they both be hooked up to my controller? I also noticed that the large watt heaters are quite huge. 2 smaller heaters may fit in nicer.

How many watts for 100 gallon system?

[R_Hudson]

As for the brand I prefer marineland. The lifetime warranty just does something for me. As for the total watts I'm going to get technical here. There's 3.41 watts in 1 btu, and it takes 1 btu to raise 1lb of water 1 degree farenheit. And a gallon of sea water ways roughly 8.6lbs per gallon so fill in the blanks. 100 gallns of water will weigh roughly 860lbs devided by 3.41 = 252.2 watts to heat your tank. Sorry for the confusion hope this helps. If it were me I would uae either a 300w or 2 150s

[R_Hudson]

And I can't help you on the controller issue. Never used one

[James77]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15159024#post15159024 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Reefer2727
If I was to use 2 heaters, would they both be hooked up to my controller? I also noticed that the large watt heaters are quite huge. 2 smaller heaters may fit in nicer.

How many watts for 100 gallon system?

Yes, just don't exceed the watt limit of the controller strip or single outlet. You can add an expansion socket to most controllers if you were to exceed it, but you shouldn't.

I have a single 500 watt heater on mine, it has no thermostat since it is controlled by a controller- it is less than a foot long.

Here is a write-up about heaters, as well as a calculator for what watts you need from BeanAnimal.
http://www.beananimal.com/articles/aquarium-heaters-what-you-need-to-know!.aspx