Going From Internal To External Heater.

[youdirtyfox]

Hello People,

Just need a little advice for my 400l community tank thanks, I currently run 2 x 200w internal heaters and have just purchased
a Hydor ETH 300 In Line Aquarium Heater wich hopefully should arrive in a few days. How do I go about making the transfer from internal to external.

Shall I install the external and then turn off the internals and turn on the external? I dont know the right way around to do things.
Any help much appreciated from anyone who has done this.

many thanks in advance

Sam.

 

[hollanda88]

I haven't done this so i may be wrong but I guess you would just swicth the internals off and the external on

the temp might drop by a fraction of a degree but water holds its temp for a while giving your external a chance to heat up

andrew

 

[nitro7]

Hello People,

Just need a little advice for my 400l community tank thanks, I currently run 2 x 200w internal heaters and have just purchased
a Hydor ETH 300 In Line Aquarium Heater wich hopefully should arrive in a few days. How do I go about making the transfer from internal to external.

Shall I install the external and then turn off the internals and turn on the external? I dont know the right way around to do things.
Any help much appreciated from anyone who has done this.

many thanks in advance

Sam.

run the external a long side the internal untill the external is full of bacteria or put the media from the internal in to the external and have presto its ready to go

 

[Truck]

Hello People,

Just need a little advice for my 400l community tank thanks, I currently run 2 x 200w internal heaters and have just purchased
a Hydor ETH 300 In Line Aquarium Heater wich hopefully should arrive in a few days. How do I go about making the transfer from internal to external.

Shall I install the external and then turn off the internals and turn on the external? I dont know the right way around to do things.
Any help much appreciated from anyone who has done this.

many thanks in advance

Sam.

run the external a long side the internal untill the external is full of bacteria or put the media from the internal in to the external and have presto its ready to go

were on about a heater not filter

 

[Jdubz]

surely it wont hurt to have both heaters running till the external one gets acclimatised.


Just looked at an external heater they are genius, gets rid of the normal unsightly one.

 

[Truck]

surely it wont hurt to have both heaters running till the external one gets acclimatised.

no it wont, and IMO you would have been better off getting 2*200 watts as you will be slightly underpowered with 300watts

 

[youdirtyfox]

surely it wont hurt to have both heaters running till the external one gets acclimatised.

no it wont, and IMO you would have been better off getting 2*200 watts as you will be slightly underpowered with 300watts

I did speek to someone on here who runs 1x300w external heater on a similar sized tank and was told it would be ok.

Cheers for the input though people

 

[rdd1952]

I would run them together for maybe a week and then turn the internals off. They are only going to come on when needed so for the time they are running together they shouldn't run a lot. As far as size is concerned, general rul of thumb is 3x tank capacity so you are right on the borderline with a 300 watt on a roughly 100 gallon tank. It just means the heater will be on more, thus shortening it's life. I have 2 x200w Hydors on my 75 gallon. For tanks of 4' or more, I just feel that dual filters and heaters offers better coverage.

 

[youdirtyfox]

I would run them together for maybe a week and then turn the internals off. They are only going to come on when needed so for the time they are running together they shouldn't run a lot. As far as size is concerned, general rul of thumb is 3x tank capacity so you are right on the borderline with a 300 watt on a roughly 100 gallon tank. It just means the heater will be on more, thus shortening it's life. I have 2 x200w Hydors on my 75 gallon. For tanks of 4' or more, I just feel that dual filters and heaters offers better coverage.

Thanks i will go for that plan then

 

[rabbut]

What I did do is put the exturnal right up to full power, and then, once on and running gradually turn the dial down untill it clicks off. At this point, it's set and you are ready to pull the internals

surely it wont hurt to have both heaters running till the external one gets acclimatised.

no it wont, and IMO you would have been better off getting 2*200 watts as you will be slightly underpowered with 300watts

That may caurse issues with plumbing if you only have one exturnal. They have to be parallel plumbed, or the second heater won't ever switch on This would mean spiltting the pipe into two and then somehow regulating the flow for roughly equal throughput for each heater

I would run them together for maybe a week and then turn the internals off. They are only going to come on when needed so for the time they are running together they shouldn't run a lot. As far as size is concerned, general rul of thumb is 3x tank capacity so you are right on the borderline with a 300 watt on a roughly 100 gallon tank. It just means the heater will be on more, thus shortening it's life. I have 2 x200w Hydors on my 75 gallon. For tanks of 4' or more, I just feel that dual filters and heaters offers better coverage.

Two points though RDD. It's the switching on and off that wears out standord by-metalic strip heaters, as its the motion that caurses the strip to become more ridged, and hence more prone to sticking. Being on for longer will increase the life expectancy of a by-metalic strip heater This is an electronic heater though, so in theory it shouldn't have any parts that are going to suffer wear and tear, and hence no difference should be seen in the life-span of the heater

All the best
Rabbut

 

[rdd1952]

I guess you're right but it just stands to reason that any piece of equipment has a life span and that if it were on for 10 hours a day, it would only last half as long as if it were on 5 hours a day. I know that's a little too simplified. In any case, we know that eventually they will quit working.

You are definitely right about the on and off issue All you have to do to understand that is look at a light bulb. They never (or not that I've ever seen) just stop burning. They always go when you turn them on. I know that if you turned one on and left it for eternity, it would eventually burn out but it would take a long time.

 

[Fishin Pole]

I have been using the Hydor external heaters for about 2 years now and love them (Use them on 5 of my 7 tanks)......No flucation in temp and very accurate to the set dial...........This is real easy to do..........Hook up your new heater to your supply line, plug it in and take out the old internal heater.........No reason to wait for anything, with the new technology in this heater you wont see a drop in temp, trust me......I had the same fear the first time i hooked one up........checked the temp every 10 minutes for 2 hours and it never wavered...........You wont ever need any other type of heat source.......I'm running one on a 90 gallon (Which its not recomended for) and havent had any temp issues for over 9 months..........IMO, this is the best piece of equipment that hit the hobby in years, just dont know many people using them

 

[youdirtyfox]

I have been using the Hydor external heaters for about 2 years now and love them (Use them on 5 of my 7 tanks)......No flucation in temp and very accurate to the set dial...........This is real easy to do..........Hook up your new heater to your supply line, plug it in and take out the old internal heater.........No reason to wait for anything, with the new technology in this heater you wont see a drop in temp, trust me......I had the same fear the first time i hooked one up........checked the temp every 10 minutes for 2 hours and it never wavered...........You wont ever need any other type of heat source.......I'm running one on a 90 gallon (Which its not recomended for) and havent had any temp issues for over 9 months..........IMO, this is the best piece of equipment that hit the hobby in years, just dont know many people using them

It arrived in the post today

Regarding fitting the in the pipe, did you wind the collar up to meet the pipe or wind the collar down to clamp the pipe in place.. instructions are abit sketchy

Cheers!

 

[watkins101]

It arrived in the post today

Regarding fitting the in the pipe, did you wind the collar up to meet the pipe or wind the collar down to clamp the pipe in place.. instructions are abit sketchy

Cheers!

I have a 300w xt heater, I cant see why you would have to run it along side an internal heater, its not like it needs to mature. I wouldnt take the old one out till its been running for a couple of hours but thats only in case of leaks. Lets face it if your internal broke what would you do?

 

[rabbut]

Wind the clamps down to meet the heater body, puch the pipe on, and then screw away from the body untill it's tight