Heater problem

[Greg31]

This is 2nd time when I have gotten a heater and has done a horrible job. I have a 300w marineland heater for my 90g and it will fluctuate between 84-77.

Can anyone please suggest a heater that will keep my tank constant temperature. This is starting to get ridiculous.

 

[Greg31]

bump, wrong section I guess. Dont care if this gets moved, just need a reliable heater!!

 

[deeda]

That's quite a bit of fluctuation in the temp. My first thought would be to make sure you are using an accurate thermometer. I have had poor results with the small digital ones as they have varied up to 7F between them.

Where is your heater located in the tank in relation to water flow? Also, does the room temperature vary much or is the tank near a window? Do you tank lights give off a large amount of heat when they are on?

I use Jager heaters on non-canister filter tanks and Hydor ETH heaters on canister filter tanks. Both work well with no temperature fluctuation for me.

 

[Aquanero]

That's quite a bit of fluctuation in the temp. My first thought would be to make sure you are using an accurate thermometer. I have had poor results with the small digital ones as they have varied up to 7F between them.

Where is your heater located in the tank in relation to water flow? Also, does the room temperature vary much or is the tank near a window? Do you tank lights give off a large amount of heat when they are on?

I agree, check your thermometer before you do anything else. I have a digital on one tank that reads 74 as long as it's at 74 I know the tank is right at 80 as checked with a known accurate thermometer. Also keep the heater at a 45 degree angle so the thermostate is not turned off prematurly by riseing heat. Also as stated room temp, lights, drafts all affect the tank temp.

 

[Greg31]

Heater is at a 45 degree angle and I use a temperature strip on the side of the tank. Even is the strip isnt 100% accurate, I can feel like tank and it feels warm sometimes, and other times it is literally cool to touch. Even if the temperatures are off, the heater is not doing its job.

 

[Laticauda]

I'd get an analog thermometer, and monitor the temperature with that. All the sticky thermometers I've ever had varied on how well it told the temperature based on room temp. Since the changing of seasons is happening, I'm having to tweak and adjust every heater since the temperature in my house is fluctuating up and down depending on the weather outside.

Touching the tank can't really give you an accurate account based from one day to the next, because your body will also have a different interpretation of the temperature if your house is a different temperature than the day before.

I use 2x150 watt for my 90 gallon (they are marineland visitherm) and have good results. Do you have them near an area of high water flow? If not then the tank isn't being heated evenly, and this will contribute to temperature fluctuations.

 

[Greg31]

I am using the 300w visithem heater and it is placed no more then 1 inch from the intake of my fluval 405. I know feeling the water is very inaccurate, but the point is, I know the water temperature is not staying consistent for my discus. Would you suggest maybe adding a 150w?

 

[Laticauda]

How is the temperature in your house? If it is fluctuating, I think you will just have to continue to monitor and adjust the thermometer's thermostat, adding another heater may help, but if your house's temperature is going up and down, then your tank's temperature will as well. Which is why I hate the changing of seasons.

It's not pretty, but I found that wrapping the tanks in the heavy window plastic helped to insulate the tank, and keep it warmer, but you have to be very careful when you do this, it can get too warm (I lost two plecos this winter when we had a huge storm, and I covered the tanks in case our power went out, and the tanks got too warm.)

 

[Greg31]

The tanks are in my basement and I would say the temperature only fluctuates from 65-70.

 

[deeda]

Try moving the heater closer to the output of the filter or in an area of high water flow.

Do you notice if the tank temperature is different at different times of the day? I would think that a 300W heater should be sufficient for a 90G tank even if the ambient room temperature is 70F.

I'm using a Hydor ETH in-line heater for my big tanks in a 68F basement. The 220G has one 300W, the 125G has one 300W and the 75G has one 200W. My temperatures never fluctuate from the heater setting of 78F.

I would still recommend getting an accurate thermometer before springing for another heater. I bought a Thermapen digital thermometer to verify the accuracy of my tank temperatures. It's actually for food service use but comes in extremely handy for the fish room. I can also use it for cooking or baking. I always break the glass aquarium thermometers so I used it to verify my tank thermometers.