Balancing 2 Heaters

[wizza]

Hi Peeps,

Ive got a question and hopefully it can be answered. It will save me alot of money (and cooked fish)!!!

here goes....

I have got a 120 Gallon fishtank (UK Gallons!!)

i use 2 300 Watt thermostat/heaters(built in) to take the load.
The trouble i have is that is doesnt matter how hard i try i cant seem to spread the work load between them usually it winds up only one doing the work.
Then after about a year the one burns out, Leaving the work to the next in line.

This has recently happened again ive now ordered another one.

How can i set them up to do equal work?

is it even possible!!??

how do you manage?

Cheers

Mark

 

[Aussie_Dog]

What brand are you using? There are some that are better quality than others. I know Fluval has some great heaters.

Or maybe you're just being too rough with them, in the way of doing water changes without turning off the heaters (so the heater gets exposed to the air when the water level goes down). I do that all the time myself, so I'm just waiting to find a heater on the blink.

 

[Tolak]

Buy a separate heat controller. This unit controls the temperature of the heaters plugged into it. This way they both go on & off at the same time.

 

[OldMan47]

Welcome to the site Wizza.
I am now on year 4 of having a 250W and a 300W on my 120 gallon tank. I try to set both at the same temperature as nearly as I can. They are at opposite ends of the tank and even though my filter is set up to circulate the whole tank, I am sure that one or the other sees each variation in tank temperature first. I am not sure why your heaters are going out so fast but mine share the heat load to some extent. I ma equally certain that I do not have them perfectly balanced so one or the other must be carrying more than its share of the heat load. In fact I always notice the 250W on even if the 300 is not. I am using the stealth heaters so can only suggest that they may be more reliable than what you are using.

 

[keenonfish]

As I have stated my opinion before therms are not accurate temperature sensors by any means even if you could get them to turn on at the same temperature one would turn off before the other. It is just the way they are. Failures sound like quality issues more than anything else?

I think someone else had the right idea external temperature controller set both thermostats to a bit above external that way you have a safety zone too. Also the contacts should last so no premature failures!

 

[rabbut]

Hang on!!! Are we talking about in-line heaters here? If so, your reliability issues could be to do with how they are rigged

If you have them rigged in series, you will have one (the first in the series) doing all the work, and the other one ideling at all times, unless your tank is at like 4c. This is because only heated water is passing the second heater's thermostat sensor, as it has been heated by the first heater first. They need to be rigged in paralell to get both to work together, and if you want both on at the same time, you need to have them attached to the same thermostat as Tolak says

Series rigging is where water passes through one and then the other. Parallel rigging is where one outlet is split into two and fed through each seporately, so 1/2 the flow goes through each, and then the two pipes feed back into one, or go into the tank as two seporate outlets You can also fit them to two seporate filters if you so prefur

All the best
Rabbut

 

[smegforbrains]

OP, have Pmd you.

 

[wizza]

hi group,

I think rabbut hit the nailon the head!

So simple!!

What it is i use a fluval fx5 and only have 1 outlet.

So what i've gone and done is had one heater by the outlet and one the other side of the tank!!

So yes. the water is warm by the time it reaches the other one.

So that means the chances are i have been running a 120 Gallon fishtank on 300watts!!!!

Yikes!!!

so when the other heater arrives i'll probably be better of putting them both side by side?



cheers

m

 

[rabbut]

In-line heaters are things that go on the Filter pipe's themselves. If the heaters are in the tank, they are internal, and don't suffer the issues I described above. I put that in, as it read to me as though you were running two Hydor in-lines (or equivilant) and that seemed like the issue. If you are on internals, the problem probibly is just poor quality equipment like Aussie_dog and Keenonfish said

For internal heaters, I use Visitherms only now for internal, though Fluval Tronics are supposed to be good, and the Hagen Eliet heaters and Tetratec ones have also given me no issues Avoid Superfish and AquaOne heaters like the plague. Very un-reliable IME For in-lines, I think only Hydor make them and I've found mine good so far

All the best
Rabbut