whats the best reef heater nowaday's

[SUPERSTOCKRACER]

i am having alot of problems with marineland visitherm 300-400 water submersible heaters.
i'm on my 5th one and they keep crapping out. light on but no heat. my buddy has gone through the same issue.thank goodness theres a 100% guarantee on them but what a pain when my temp keeps dropping.
what are you using for a good submersible heater these days.

[maroun.c]

I've had two Visitherms explode 2 years back. I'm now using 4x300 Eheim Jaeger and will upgrade to 600W Titanium Schego heaters next year.

[uny2bld]

There is no such thing as a perfect heater. I got so sick of dealing with them that I just heat the ambient temp of my fishroom to 79 degrees and it works great. It's a lot less expensive for me to do it this way as well...

[cloak]

These Aquaclear heaters I have have been working flawlessly for years on end without any problems. Set it & forget it. :)

[Sugar Magnolia]

Nothing but Jager here. I had a Visitherm get stuck in the on position and nuke my nano when I first started in the hobby.

[SUPERSTOCKRACER]

I'm on my 7th visitherm heater. The light stays on but no heat coming out of them.
Something is definitely wrong with this marineland visitherm heaters lately.
How can 7 go bad in one month?

[CIGARSC351W]

EBO Jäger in my tanks.

[coral_lagoon]

X2 on Ebo Jager..

[Terrance]

My oldest heater is Jager, but all newer heaters are Aqueon Pro.

[SUPERSTOCKRACER]

My oldest heater is Jager, but all newer heaters are Aqueon Pro.


I was thinking the aqueon pro this time around. my 300 gallon reef needs 4 heaters to keep up in the winter.

[jaa1456]

Jäger all the way, I still have heaters from them that are 20 years old and still work. I can't say that for one other brand out there. They are the only heater I trust and buy. I have used others and they have failed or had recalls.

[Neogenocide]

I'm using a finnex external controller with a 800w titanium element in the tank. Love it so far, holds a tight temp band, would buy another one if this one dies.

I've also used to use the via aqua titanium heaters, never had one fail....also good units in my opinion. Only reason I changed is 2 600w heaters in my tank weren't working out well so I went with a single 800w finnex.

[phinfan8]

Not trying to be a jerk but, why would you be on your 7th visitherm heater? I would have given up after 2. I run finnex, and jager. So far so good.

[thegrun]

I have all Eheim Jaeger now, but I've also had very good luck with the relatively inexpensive ViaAqua titanium heaters in the past. The key in my opinion to any heater is to first calibrate it with a good thermometer (I use a lab grade glass thermometer) as I’ve seen the thermometers provided on the heaters off as much as 4 degrees and always use a controller for actual on off function. I set the thermometer on the heater to the maximum temperature I want the tank to heat to (80.0 degrees F) and then use the controller to set the actual range of each heater (always use at least two at half your necessary total wattage so when one breaks you at least have 1/2 the heat necessary if it fails off and only overheat half as much if it sticks in the on position).

[HiImSean]

I'm using Jager too. Great heaters. I use to use some Marineland on my freshwater tanks but would unplug them during the summer. This winter I went to plug them back in and they didn't fire back up.

[Fgtank]

Jäger

[aandfsoccr04]

eheim jager for me.

[mnchartier]

Running Fluval E Series heaters since 09 without any issues. No matter which heater you run you should run it on a controller. The issue is as mentioned above they get stuck on. So if you have a controller (Apex, ReefKeeper, or Ranco) it would shut off when the water gets to the proper temp and you dont have to worry about cooking your tank.

[risin]

Jager has never failed me.

Stay away from those black plastic stealth heaters, can't remember the manufacturer. getting shocked sucks and your tank won't like the black toxic goo they spew out.

[dml931]

i use the Aqueon Pro heaters in all 3 of my tanks. super stable and very reliable. never had an issue so far. i don't like the glass encased heaters as i've had too many crack when doing water changes, even if i've unplugged the heater before i remove the water. The aqueon are plastic encased and shatterproof. great product if you ask me.

[Drae]

Titanium heating prong without a thermostat on a controller (rkl or apex or better) hands down. Fail proof.

[don_chuwish]

Aqueon Pro on an Apex controlled outlet. If it fails 'on' the Apex will turn it off. If the Apex goes wonky in some unexpected way, the heater isn't set high enough to do any harm.

- D

[MedRed]

I moved passed Jager's and onto Cobalt Neo Therms. The tech level and features are higher and I couldn't find a single instance of someone saying one had failed.

[Drae]

With a heating prong IT WILL NEVER FAIL! There's no on/off switch to get stuck. Period. Your controller would have to fail. .. very rare. Even a simple rkl Does a great job at controlling one. They simply act as the thermostat. Get a good temp probe and your done.

[sslak]

Nothing but Jager.

[Drae]

I've had a jager fail. It didnt get stuck but it went out.

[Jstdv8]

My jaegers seem to loose their heating power after a couple years. Don't get as hot as they used to.
I now have soe jeagers in small tanks and one 800w titanium finnex on external controller in my main sump.

[ptreef]

the new ebo jagers seem very nice. But with any heater get something to control it!

[bravanc]

Finnex titanium on Apex

[jaa1456]

With a heating prong IT WILL NEVER FAIL! There's no on/off switch to get stuck. Period. Your controller would have to fail. .. very rare. Even a simple rkl Does a great job at controlling one. They simply act as the thermostat. Get a good temp probe and your done.

Yea I had one fail, those heaters with prongs do fail. Lost a 265 gallon tank to one. You have to check the probes as well, they will rot where the wire meets the water surface.

[blazzing_ray]

my 4th marienland just did as every one else said light and no heat

[meisel1]

aqueon pro...no issues EVER....damn near indestructable and accurate heat.

[Bpb]

My mag 5 is an excellent heater lol...but to make up the small 1-2 degree difference on my 60 gallon total water volume I keep a 75 watt jäger heater in the sump. It's undersized but only turns on here and there at night. Lights and return pump keep the water plenty warm. We keep the house at 74 and my tank stays at 80. I have an extra 150 watt laying around if I needed it.

The new cobalt heaters look really nice, they come with an external controller and have solid state heating with no moving parts. They claim they will never stick. If I were in the market I may spring for one of those

[LobsterOfJustice]

Jagers are good. Visi-therms used to be okay but now they are crap.

Either way, I would always have it plugged into a secondary controller as a backup, something like a reefkeeper, apex, or ranco. Its pretty unlikely for two separate thermostats to break. I also replace my heaters every few years even if they are in working order just as preventative maintenance. Heaters are cheap and you can always find someone local willing to buy a used heater locally for a few bucks to help cover part of the cost of a new one.