Heaters? How many?

[ryanb91]

Setting up a 115 gal display SPS tank w/ a 55 gsl sump/fuge. How many and what size heaters do you recommend? Brand?

[dennisdeng2002]

How cold is the area your tank is in? What kind of lighting are you running? And what pump are you using? The heat from lights and pumps will factor in on how much wattage you need. I would say a good number would be 500 watts though.

[jwaka11]

I would do 2x300w heaters. Thats what I use for my 220g. If one fails, the other will pick it up.

[dennisdeng2002]

I forgot to add, all heaters are of similar quality/reliability, some are a little better than others, but in general they fail quite often. It is a lot safer to run 2 smaller heaters off a seperate temperature controller such as a ranco.

[pimpinitup6969]

2 x 300watt

[ryanb91]

I will be using T5's and the DT is in the living room but is plumbed to the basement which usually stays around 67 year round

[ryanb91]

also using a mag 12 as return pump

[Sokretys]

I personally dont like using 2 sepparate heaters unless they have a sepparate temperature probe like a ViaAqua or even better, a blueline 500 watt with controller for your particular set up.

Have 2 side by side heaters with internal temperature probes will confuse one another, but 2x 300 watters that are on opposite sides of the sump would work out.

But if i were you id get a blueline 500 with a blueline controller. If water is flowing from left to right in your sump...have the probe on the left side and the heater right next to your mag 12

[GTriever]

How long is the chamber where the heaters will be located? On my 40 long sump/refugium for the 125g tank, I ended up going with (4) 200W heaters on a Ranco controller, because that was what would fit in the chambers. As far as what brand, I'm sort of partial to the Stealth heaters.

[BeanAnimal]

Just about everything you would want to know (and more).

Sokretys: splitting the heating duties amonst several small heaters is always safer than using a single larger heater :)

http://beananimal.com/articles/aquarium-heaters-what-you-need-to-know!.aspx

[Sokretys]

I would much rather use one excellent heater than 2 garbage ones

[BeanAnimal]

They are pretty much garbage and fail in the same manner. Two small "garbage" heaters have much less of a chance to overheat the tank than one large "less junky" heater. :)

[korth659]

better to use 2 heaters

[Macimage]

Originally posted by Sokretys
I would much rather use one excellent heater than 2 garbage ones

The problem is that there is no "excellent heater" in the aquarium hobby. Even what could be considered an expensive heater, say $100 has internal components that I would not trust my reef with. Heaters are notorious for sticking in the on position. There are have been many RC threads about it over the years.

As other experienced reefers have noted, two smaller heaters hooked up to either a Ranco controller or an aquarium controller such as a AquaController is the best way to set up a system.

Joyce