the best heater?

[yoboyjdizz]

Was wondering what you guys recomend on what heater(s) to use?

[Fiziksgeek]

finnex titanium with a Ranco controller

[roons]

won bros titanium on ranco controller, any heater without a controller is junk imo

[bkwudzjeep]

I agree with finnex titanium

[gil716]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7352314#post7352314 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by roons
any heater without a controller is junk imo
i agree with roons on this.

many have recommended ebo jaegers and even those become very inconsistent over time.

[Fiziksgeek]

Whatever you do, don't be cheap. It really sucks to come home and find your tank at 95 degrees and everything is dead :-(

Spend a little extra, get a couple of smaller heater (as opposed to one large) and a good controller.

If your looking for heaters for your 280, you may want to use 3x300W heaters, maybe even 3x500W. And of course a good reliable controller.

[roons]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7352433#post7352433 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by gil716
i agree with roons on this.

many have recommended ebo jaegers and even those become very inconsistent over time.


i started with them on everyones rec.................maybe the older ones were good but the ones i had were junk, i have 2 i use to heat up change water but id never put one in my tank

[BeanAnimal]

To add what has been said here.. The heater is the most important piece of equipment in our systems, yet it is the piece of equipment given the least amount of thought. Heater failures are one of the most prevelant reasons for livestock loss.

Don't every rely on the thermostat in a heater, they are 100% junk. There is not a single trustworthy heater made for the aquarium hobby.

Use a trusted temperature controller (RANCO, JOHNSON CONTROLS, ETC). You can also use the aquarium controllers that have the functionality built in.

I prefer to buy titanium heaters without thermostats in them (nothing to go bad).

If you don't want to get a controller you really need to do as others posted, use of small heaters. But again it is silly to trust a ~$20 piece of junk to maintain a healty environment for your expensive livestock.

A note on sizing multiple heaters:
The "largest" of the small heaters should be sized so that by itself, it cannot overheat the aquarium, to a point, the smaller the better.
A decent setup would be (3) heaters. A setup with (4) would be better. A single heater failing ON would not overheat the tank, and a single heater faining OFF would not allow the tank to get to cold. If you only have (2) heaters, you run the risk of a failure allowing the temperature to drop. With (3) heaters if any single heater can fail and the temp may slowly drop, it is not likely that (2) will fail on at the same time. With (4) heaters, the temperature is likely to be maintained in the event of any (2) failures. Further failure modes can be looked at but are unlikely.

I hope this makes sense... I am working on little sleep and a lot of projects.

[D-Rod]

I've never used a controller before! are they easy to set up?
do you hard wire them to the heater or plug them in?
i'm up for a new project, anything to save my babies :)

D-Rod

[Fiziksgeek]

I bought a pre-wired ranco controller and 300W finnex titanium heaters (without any controller). All you have to do it plug the heater into the controller...

The controller serves the same function as the thermostat that comes with most heaters. But being a seperate unit (which will cost more) they are much better quality.

[roons]

http://diyreef.com/shop/product_info.php?cPath=68&products_id=212

[Ti]

ebo jager works for me

[BeanAnimal]

Yes Ti, but they fail routinely for others. The point here is that aquarium heaters should not be trusted. They are not reliable devices. The proof is not hard to show, but it is not worth the trouble either. You may not wear your seat belt, but that surely does not mean that cars are safe. It may "work for you".

Bean

[Ti]

O.k

[Avast Marine]

Another vote for finnex ti

[dvanacker]

I dont understand why you would want a heater with no thermostat. If the ranco sticks on then your screwed. If your heater has its own thermostat (set to the tank temp) and the ranco sticks on the heaters thermostat will go off. Seems like double protection to me....why would i choose not to have it??

[Avast Marine]

My finnex has a thermostat set to 76. My Aquacontroller turns it on and off as needed. I agree double protection can't hurt.

[BeanAnimal]

Ti, whatever "works for you" I guess.

dvanacker,
It's just another part to fail, and it will fail. The thermostats in these heaters come in two types. Mechanical and Electronic.

Mechanical thermostats rely on a small bi-metal strip, just like your old-school wall thermostat. In some cases the b-metal strip also acts as the contacts for the 110V, in others a small crude relay is used. In either case these parts are very tiny, and very cheap. The duty cycles is rather limited and many failures are du to fatigue. In addition because of the limited space and size of the contacts, they often weld closed, causing the heat to stick on.

Electronic thermostats use either a SSR or similar means to turn the heater on and off according to the reading from a small thermistor. The circuits are very basic and very prone to failure or damage. Many of these heaters fail OPEN (better than overheating your tank), but they do still have a very high failure rate.

Can a RANCO stick on, well anything can fail. The question becomes a statistical matter. The RANCOs failure rate is magnitudes lower than the hobby heaters. It is only fractionaly safer to use a RANCO with a thermostat equiped heater. In most cases it may not be needed, but will not hurt. I honestly feel it adds more risk due to the high failure rate of the hobby heaters. Not risk of overheating (obviously) but risk of NO HEAT.

Enjoy :)

[dvanacker]

Yep...but if a heater sticks on...no biggy the ranco will likely not fail at the same time and I can replace the heater at a later time. And if one heater fails to come on I have two so and either one can handle heating the water on its own.

I test my heaters by bypassing the ranco and see if the thermo's on them still work. If they turn off just about a degree higher then the ranco is set at then I'm happy. If one stays on it gets replaced.

This is safe to me.....and better then a heater with no thermostat.