I swear, the next heater I buy that I can actually trust will be the first.
Like many people here, the best heater I own is an ancient Jager that has to be over ten years old. I think it's a 200w and for over a year it maintained a 125g at 83 degrees without any problem by itself. I decided, however, after finding this site, that 200w on 125g wasn't exactly reliable, so I ordered two stealth 250w heaters and put both in the 125, moving the Jager to my 75.
2x250w stealths couldn't get over 79 regardless of how high I cranked them.
Meanwhile, the Jager was too much for the 75, which kept trying to creep over 85 degrees. While it's good and powerful, it's a total guessing game to set it at a specific temperature, as the dial on top just spins and spins and there's no longer any correlation between the temp it says and what it actually shuts itself off at. I put it back in the 125 with one stealth and I'm good there, and I have the other stealth and some random 50 watt one with an unlabeled dial keeping the 75 where I want it. I don't trust it.
For a while I also had a 110 that ran nicely for a while with a big titanium heater (not sure of the wattage. 500 maybe?), but that started fading too and I had to add a 2nd heater (visitherm) to that tank for a while. I ended up selling that tank and the heater with it. I never trusted the visitherm one either.
I also picked up a 250w Visitherm with the one in the previous paragraph. It stopped working after 2 months. I used the smaller one in a breeding tank until one day the glass cracked and it died too. I'm down to two 50w heaters, neither of which inspire confidence, but are currently keeping two small tanks at 78, which is all I need for them right now.
And that's where the real problem lies. I can get creative with the larger tanks because there's not too much risk - my house is 72 so that's the lowest they'll go, and there aren't enough watts to boil anyone alive. But I've had too many heater failures with smaller ones to trust anything with my breeding or growout tanks. I've had THREE new-ish heaters physically break in a fry tank in the past year. Two others simply died. One went the other way and boiled about 3 dozen newborn african cichlids alive in my tiny newborn tank. Even the heaters I have that do work are set by guessing games rather than an actual working thermostat. And I even have thermometers breaking on me left and right.
Is there ANY low-wattage heater that I can actually trust?
I don't care what it costs. I just want it to work.
Like many people here, the best heater I own is an ancient Jager that has to be over ten years old. I think it's a 200w and for over a year it maintained a 125g at 83 degrees without any problem by itself. I decided, however, after finding this site, that 200w on 125g wasn't exactly reliable, so I ordered two stealth 250w heaters and put both in the 125, moving the Jager to my 75.
2x250w stealths couldn't get over 79 regardless of how high I cranked them.
Meanwhile, the Jager was too much for the 75, which kept trying to creep over 85 degrees. While it's good and powerful, it's a total guessing game to set it at a specific temperature, as the dial on top just spins and spins and there's no longer any correlation between the temp it says and what it actually shuts itself off at. I put it back in the 125 with one stealth and I'm good there, and I have the other stealth and some random 50 watt one with an unlabeled dial keeping the 75 where I want it. I don't trust it.
For a while I also had a 110 that ran nicely for a while with a big titanium heater (not sure of the wattage. 500 maybe?), but that started fading too and I had to add a 2nd heater (visitherm) to that tank for a while. I ended up selling that tank and the heater with it. I never trusted the visitherm one either.
I also picked up a 250w Visitherm with the one in the previous paragraph. It stopped working after 2 months. I used the smaller one in a breeding tank until one day the glass cracked and it died too. I'm down to two 50w heaters, neither of which inspire confidence, but are currently keeping two small tanks at 78, which is all I need for them right now.
And that's where the real problem lies. I can get creative with the larger tanks because there's not too much risk - my house is 72 so that's the lowest they'll go, and there aren't enough watts to boil anyone alive. But I've had too many heater failures with smaller ones to trust anything with my breeding or growout tanks. I've had THREE new-ish heaters physically break in a fry tank in the past year. Two others simply died. One went the other way and boiled about 3 dozen newborn african cichlids alive in my tiny newborn tank. Even the heaters I have that do work are set by guessing games rather than an actual working thermostat. And I even have thermometers breaking on me left and right.
Is there ANY low-wattage heater that I can actually trust?
I don't care what it costs. I just want it to work.
