I was running two TopFin heaters on my 125 gallon tank, and all of a sudden i put my hand in the tank one day to do a water change and it was 73 degrees when i had my heaters set at 84. No idea what happened, but luckily i had a bunch of little heaters laying around so i replaced those heaters with three little ones that will hopefully do the job for the time being. I want to buy the best heater possible so that this doesn't happen again.. What heater do I get for the 125? and will it have enough watts or will i have to buy two?
What is the top of the line aquarium heater?
- Thread starter HockeysFinest
- Start date
The way to go now a days seems to be a separate temp controller and titanium heating elements.
The Ranco controller and Jehmco titantium elements seem to be popular. I had two ViaAqua titanium heaters that had the controller go bad, so I wired them up to a stc-1000 controller, haven't had any problems since.
The Ranco controller and Jehmco titantium elements seem to be popular. I had two ViaAqua titanium heaters that had the controller go bad, so I wired them up to a stc-1000 controller, haven't had any problems since.
That's very odd that they happened to fail around the same time. My guess is that chances are, one hasn't been working for awhile and the one that was working finally just failed.
From reading different threads, it appears that todays' heater electronics are essentially crap, in order to keep cost down (and profits up). So its best to set up your heating system in a manner that decreases your odds of complete failure.......and dead fish. This is why, I have all my tanks set up with multiple heaters connected to a heat controller, and although they are not that accurate, I use digital thermometers with hi/lo temp alarms. So far, I've had no failure with any of my Jager or AqeonPro heaters and these heaters are all hooked up to inexpensive Finnex controllers.
For a 125 in a heated room, I personally would use two 200W heaters connected to 1 or 2 heat controllers, placed at opposite ends of the tank(if doable)
http://www.kensfish.com/aquarium-supplies/aquarium-heaters/finnex-max-300-controller.html
I agree about controllers, and using more than 1 undersize heater.
I believe you were very lucky yours failed the way they did, when mine have failed its usually been stuck in the "on" position, and if I hadn't been using undersized heaters, they would have cooked the tank. My first failure in this manner was in the 80s, and I have always used undersized heaters since.
I unplug almost all my heaters around the 1st of June anyways, I see no need for temps above the mid 70sF for any except fish like haitiensus, discus or Alcalopia
I believe you were very lucky yours failed the way they did, when mine have failed its usually been stuck in the "on" position, and if I hadn't been using undersized heaters, they would have cooked the tank. My first failure in this manner was in the 80s, and I have always used undersized heaters since.
I unplug almost all my heaters around the 1st of June anyways, I see no need for temps above the mid 70sF for any except fish like haitiensus, discus or Alcalopia
I would love to unplug all my heaters, but here in the great white north, with my AC running in the summer, basement temps hold steady at 62-64F. So I run all my heaters through controllers, all varying in brand from tank to tank.
I've had great luck with ranch controllers and cheap hydor heaters. Also like the aqueon pro heaters. I've had quite a few jagger heaters give up on me.
I really like my eheim jäger, haven't had a problem with it yet. I use the aqueon brand on my smaller tanks, but the eheim is on my 120 and so far it's my favorite- super easy controls and seems to have held up better than my other brands.