Anyone have experience with titanium heaters? need help

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navygirl76

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Sep 6, 2007
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Hey everyone-

I have a 180 gallon african tank that currently has a crappy heater (low watt). it wont heat the tank above 76.2 degrees.

So, i decided to buy a 500 Watt Catalina titanium heater. I have had it in the sump now for about 8 hours, and the temp is NOT raising.

I noticed that when i turn the temp. guage to increase the temp of the heater, a red light will come on-my guess it indicates that the heater kicked on-and right enough when i stick my hand in the sump and touch the heater it will automatically get hot-

i started out with it set at 80 degrees. Nothing. so ive turned it up to 88 degrees (!!!) before the titanium heater now kicks on.

is this normal for titanium heaters? i dont want to wake up to a tank full of dead fish and sky high temps.

do any of you have your heaters set much higher than the actual temp in the tank? i know its alot of water to heat. i would love to get my tank to about 79 degrees, but im afraid to turn the heater up to 90 to achieve that..

what do you all do?
 
Every heater i buy is frickin retarded like that too.

never look at the 'degrees' the heater reads just crank the son of gun up till your water hits the temp ya need then very carefully and slowly ajust it down till light goes off. Thats how i set mine. When doing this use a different thermeter then the one on your heater.
 
just dont crank it and walk away. i never adjust my heater unless i can keep an eye on the tank for atleast 6 hours........i would hate to boil fish
 
One, 500 watt heater is really not adequate to maintain a steady temp. on a 180. On my 240, I use two 500 watt heaters on a controller. It allows me to easily maintain any temp. I need, which by the way is 84 because it's a discus tank. I use one 800 watt heater on a controller on each of my two 125 tanks. No problems there either.
 
A 500 watt heater is fine for a 180 IMO.

Mel, it sounds like the probe is malfunctioning.

I would go back to your other heater until you get this one figured out/returned.
 
Guapote;2547853; said:
A 500 watt heater is fine for a 180 IMO.

At only 2.8 watts per gallon, the temp. is likely to fluctuate 5 or more degrees up and down. That's not holding a steady temp. IMO. Some cheapo controllers out there make the problem worse. At the very least, it's going to stay on a lot more than it should trying to keep up, especially if it's in a sump. Not as much if you keep temps. in the seventies, as opposed to the eighties, but it will. If you run 4,5, or more watts per gallon, and a quality controller, you can maintain any temp. you need to within a degree, without the up and down swings, and actually use less electricity, as the heaters don't have to run for extended periods to maintain temp. The life of your heater will also increase as a result. It is a common mistake that even some "experts" make. I use to do it as well.
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I think that 500 watts on a 120 will be sufficient, but you're not going to see instant change. That's a lot of water to heat. Yes, you could see 5 degree temp fluctuations, if you have that much of a different ambient room temp from your tank temp... but I don't think that will happen unless you just go crazy with the wall thermostat. Give it some time before you make any decisions, overnight should do it. After that, if you see no change you may just have a defective heater.
 
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