Heating a 180G

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robroy

Polypterus
MFK Member
Feb 19, 2006
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BC, Canada
So I'm going to be purchasing a 180G and setting it up in the early New Year
Filtration will be a HMF in both corners-each powered by pumps
I live in the Fraser Valley, BC

The tank will be situated in a finished basement suite-fully insulated. Reading around the Forum the general advice appears to be 3W per gallon for heating. I'm therefore planning 2x 250W heaters-you think this will suffice?
 
In my similar size tanks, I like to use 3 or 4 smaller wattage heaters, situated evenly across the back of the tank.
In case one of the thermostats gets stuck in the "On" position.
In that way, the one smaller stuck that's one doesn't have the capacity to cook the fish, and the others will (hopefully) turn off.
And if one fails in the "off " position the others can still maintain a reasonable temp (most tropical fish easily take drops into the 60s'F.
Most heater failures for me have been in the "On" position, I had an in-line one start to melt the PVC line it was attached to.
 
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I was recommended by the store to have 3x300w heaters in my 180 and that's what i did at first. However, a few months playing about and tinkering i now only have 2x300w heaters down in my sump and i've never had issues. My tank is in my living room so i'd have thought that the ambient temp shouldn't be too dissimilar to your insulated basement. As mentioned it might be wise to get a temperature controller (i have inkbird). The only reason for the inkbird is not because i've had heater failure in the past, because i've never had heater failure, it's just a precautionary measure. I've read of too many horror stories regarding heater failure and tank wipe outs to even take a chance.
 
I have a 240g pong and use 2x300W. They keep the temp rock solid. I'd go for the same for yours despite smaller volume. In my exerience its more likely the heaters to stop heating rather than overheating a tank but of course the opposite can happen.
 
I have had a heater get stuck on. It was a 50W heater on my son’s ten gallon tank and in the morning the water was 102 degrees. Obviously, none of the fish made it and I now use an InkBird on every tank, including my son’s little ten gallon tank.
 
Also, I run my 220 with two 300W heaters and have no problems. I keep it up around 80 and the ambient temp is about 70 in the house.
 
Thanks for the replies guys-I'm still inclined to go with 2 heaters but will look into the Inkbird too

From looking at it I just plug the 2 heaters straight into the Inkbird so it'll only need one socket correct (using just the one socket for the Inkbird rather than 2 separate ones if I used combined heater/stats)?
 
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robroy2 said:
Thanks for the replies guys-I'm still inclined to go with 2 heaters but will look into the Inkbird too

From looking at it I just plug the 2 heaters straight into the Inkbird so it'll only need one socket correct (using just the one socket for the Inkbird rather than 2 separate ones if I used combined heater/stats)?
Click to expand...

You will have to use a splitter so that both heaters can be plugged into the heat outlet. For $35, it’s really good redundancy for your heaters.
 
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