Advice Needed Urgently!

[Bubbles370]

Sorry I know this is the wrong area, but I need advice urgently.

One of my heaters, a rena cal 200w, has just fractured and burst in my tank, I have removed it, and all of the glass, but I a little worried as I don't know if they are filled with any chemicals?

All of the fish seem fine at the moment, but does anyone know if there is anything harmful in them?

Any advice or help will be appreciated.

Thanks

 

[mike455555]

no chemicals, normally its just a heating element like in your kettle 

 

[Bubbles370]

Thank god for that, I thought I was going to have a massacre on my hands!

 

[Bubbles370]

Ok, now the problem I'm facing is:

As I have lost one of the heaters from the tank, 200w, will the remaining 150w be enough to heat my 230l tank? The dimensions are 4ft x 2ft x 1ft.

If not, looks like I'm going shopping tomorrow lol

 

[TwoTankAmin]

Calculating the needed wattage to heat any given tank depends on two factors:
 
1. Lowest ambient temperature which may be expected.
 
2. Desired temperature of the water.

 

[eaglesaquarium]

The good news is that its (practically) summer.  If this happened in Jan, it would be more precarious.  Now is just a minor inconvenience.  Even if the temp were to drop, it won't drop below the ambient room temp, and the fish should be just fine with that temp for a few days, let alone a few hours.
 
 
The standard answer is that ~1W will heat 1L of water, give or that a bit (depending on the factors TTA mentioned above).  So, 150W is just a bit low for a 230L tank, but at this time of year it will probably be fine for a little while.  Getting another 200W heater to replace the broken one would be my recommendation.

 

[snazy]

For a 200litre tank one single heater rated 200W would do perfect but to be honest I'd think that even a 150W would do fine. If you see it going on and off too often, then get a more powerful one, otherwise it should be ok. As suggested above, it all depends on what temperature you want to achieve and what is the room temperature.
Currently in one tank I have a single 300W on a 400L tank and it does just perfect.
Another thing to consider with heaters is that if the flow around the tank isn't equal and there are dead areas, then that's when you can also get different temperatures.  But that's fixed by improving the flow and in a 216L tank(that's what I came up with calculating 4x2x1) you should be fine with just one heater.

 

[eaglesaquarium]

I mostly agree with the above... recommendation is to get the 200W to replace the broken, so that the 150W can then be held in reserve for a future emergency.  Always nice to have a backup.  Its saved me a lot of stress (not to mention the fish) on a few occasions.  

 

[Bubbles370]

Perfect, thanks everyone. I picked up another 200w yesterday, going to keep the 150w to one side as a spare as suggested.
 
Again, thanks everyone.