heater problem question

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guppy78

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hey, I bought a heater ( https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07KNGKFLT/?tag= ) around 3 months ago but only started to actually plug it in at the end of the summer as the room temp was in mid 20s anyway, its been working fine since with a constant 24 degrees, however when i woke up today i noticed it was on 22, i checked my settings and everything was as it should be, unplugged it - waited, plugged it back in etc but it stills stuck on 22

is it simply broken? just seems odd that it dont drop below 22 yet wont go higher either, room temp atm is 19 so it must be working to some extent

thanks
 
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The adjustments on heaters can be finicky. Sometimes it takes a few days for them to settle. If you are within a degree or two of your desired temperature then leave it alone unless you absolutely must have a certain temperature for a specific fish or spawning requirement. Watch the fish. Is everything fine ? Let that be your guide. And also, I don't think aquarium heaters are all that much the precision instrument that manufacturers would have us believe.
 
Agree, but I am a bit confused as to the issue. When it was keeping the water at 24, was it set to this temperature? Or can you set specific temperatures, or just turn a dial up or down? Today it was "on 22," do you mean the tank temp was 22 (I assume so, but would like confirmation) and you had not made any adjustment?

All aquarium heaters will only function within several degrees of the ambient room temperature. I keep my fish room at 70F in the winter, so the tank heaters only have to work to maintain temperatures around 75-78F. If the room temperature was say 60F, I doubt my heaters would function well and could even fail.
 
Agree, but I am a bit confused as to the issue. When it was keeping the water at 24, was it set to this temperature? Or can you set specific temperatures, or just turn a dial up or down? Today it was "on 22," do you mean the tank temp was 22 (I assume so, but would like confirmation) and you had not made any adjustment?

All aquarium heaters will only function within several degrees of the ambient room temperature. I keep my fish room at 70F in the winter, so the tank heaters only have to work to maintain temperatures around 75-78F. If the room temperature was say 60F, I doubt my heaters would function well and could even fail.

hey byron, yeah its always been set and stayed on 24, its one of those LED display heaters with the temp increase/decrease button on the powerlead outside the tank, the heater LED is still reading as 22 but since i made this post i put a thermometer in from my smaller tank and its reading the water is around 24 degrees so im just wondering if its just the actual display thats broken, problem is the heater has displayed as "on" all day so im not sure if thats just gonna really eat the electric as it always turned itself off when the desired 24 temp was reached : /

I did my maintenance yesterday, cleaned my filters and i did remove the heater to give that a quick clean too as it was getting some small green algae on the suction cups etc so maybes ive accidently broken it, im not sure tbh, ill keep checking the thermometer for now, just hope the heater dont blow altogether before i get a replacement which kind of sucks because its not really that old.
 
Those heaters are not particulalry accurate. I have a similar one that reads about 5 degrees different to the actual temperature. I am currently testing mine in a quarantine tank to make sure that it is consistent. It does seem to be so far, it just reports the temperature as different to what it actually is. In my case I have to set it to 30 to maintain a temp of 25.

The thing I don't like about this particular heater - its not exactly the same as yours but is my only (so called) digital heater is that it has a very narrow range. When the temp drops by 0.1 degree it turns itself back on. This means that when the room is cooler than the tank it is constantly turning itself on and off, which gives the appearance that it is on all the time, unless you actually sit and watch it for 10-15 minutes. My other heaters allow the temp to dorp by a couple of degrees before turning on so are usually off for several hours at a time before coming back on.
 
Those heaters are not particulalry accurate. I have a similar one that reads about 5 degrees different to the actual temperature. I am currently testing mine in a quarantine tank to make sure that it is consistent. It does seem to be so far, it just reports the temperature as different to what it actually is. In my case I have to set it to 30 to maintain a temp of 25.

The thing I don't like about this particular heater - its not exactly the same as yours but is my only (so called) digital heater is that it has a very narrow range. When the temp drops by 0.1 degree it turns itself back on. This means that when the room is cooler than the tank it is constantly turning itself on and off, which gives the appearance that it is on all the time, unless you actually sit and watch it for 10-15 minutes. My other heaters allow the temp to dorp by a couple of degrees before turning on so are usually off for several hours at a time before coming back on.


Ill try setting mine to 30 and see what it reaches at the end of the day, something byron said yesterday got me thinking, my room temp atm is 18.5 and the heater is reading 22 again...so do heaters only heat 3/4 degrees higher than the room temp? reguardless of how high i set it etc, its always been on 24 but the room temp was always 21+ untill this last week with winter kicking in, so im just wondering if its actually working as intended, or do heaters always heat 30+ if thats what you set them too wether its 18 or 21+ room temp or not, its slightly confusing
 
Ill try setting mine to 30 and see what it reaches at the end of the day, something byron said yesterday got me thinking, my room temp atm is 18.5 and the heater is reading 22 again...so do heaters only heat 3/4 degrees higher than the room temp? reguardless of how high i set it etc, its always been on 24 but the room temp was always 21+ untill this last week with winter kicking in, so im just wondering if its actually working as intended, or do heaters always heat 30+ if thats what you set them too wether its 18 or 21+ room temp or not, its slightly confusing

There are two very different aspects to this. The one that I was pointing out has to do with the temperature setting versus the effective temperature of the water resulting from the setting. Example, I have a Jaeger heater that keeps the water temperature at 25C when it is set to 21C. Setting it to 25C results in a temperature of 29-30C. So here the heater is working fine so long as I recognize the difference. I've had other heaters do this too. The ambient room temperature can impact this, because no aquarium heater will heat water to say 26C if the room is cold. Around teen degrees difference is all there should be. Otherwise the heater has to work too hard and that is when they often fail.

In your situation, if I understand it correctly, there is a digital temperature display on the heater which is supposed to indicate the temperature of the water, which may vary from the set temperature obviously. Your stick thermometer shows a different water temperature, so the digital temperature display is not accurate.
 
yeah i think i understand now, I set my heater to 30 earlier today around 5 hours ago, but still its stuck on 22, my thermometer is reading it as 23 but it should be higher than that by now, so by the looks of it the display is broken and the heater itself is not working as it was 2 days ago, maybes i did break it when i was doing maintenance as everything was fine until then, not sure how though as i was careful and just rubbed any algae from it in a bucket of water i removed from the tank.

been reading a few reviews on amazon about this heater and theres a few customers had the same issue as me after it was working fine for 4-5 weeks etc and now its no longer available, ill do some research and order another/better one, cheers guys
 
It may be best to get a new heater.

The heater is the single most important piece of equipment. A filter may shut down but it will not really harm the fish (except in excessively stocked small tanks obviously). A heater that fails overnight can result in a tank of diseased or dead fish by morning, whether it fails to heat or fails to shut off. So never try to save money on less expensive heaters.

There are several reliable brands, and I'm sure other members can recommend some of them. My last heater purchase was the Eheim Jager about five years ago, and while it has the setting difference I mentioned previously, it does maintain the temperature once you get it where you want it.

Another thing is to acquire higher wattage heaters. These always seem to be more reliable long-term. My heater failures have all been 50w, but my 150w, 200 and 250w heaters have been faultless, and some of them are now 20 years old. I have a 100w heater in my 10g, which some would say was too much but it has been there for 22 years without a mishap.
 
It may be best to get a new heater.

The heater is the single most important piece of equipment. A filter may shut down but it will not really harm the fish (except in excessively stocked small tanks obviously). A heater that fails overnight can result in a tank of diseased or dead fish by morning, whether it fails to heat or fails to shut off. So never try to save money on less expensive heaters.

There are several reliable brands, and I'm sure other members can recommend some of them. My last heater purchase was the Eheim Jager about five years ago, and while it has the setting difference I mentioned previously, it does maintain the temperature once you get it where you want it.

Another thing is to acquire higher wattage heaters. These always seem to be more reliable long-term. My heater failures have all been 50w, but my 150w, 200 and 250w heaters have been faultless, and some of them are now 20 years old. I have a 100w heater in my 10g, which some would say was too much but it has been there for 22 years without a mishap.

cheers byron, ive been doing some research and this one is #1 according to a few reviews https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B001MX5X6U/?tag=
turns out its the same make as yours, and in my current price range, also this one is slightly cheaper but also had great reviews https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B003VZ43W2/?tag=

I figured the 150w will be more than enough for my 80cm long 30gallon tank
 
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cheers byron, ive been doing some research and this one is #1 according to a few reviews https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B001MX5X6U/?tag=
turns out its the same make as yours, and in my current price range, also this one is slightly cheaper but also had great reviews https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B003VZ43W2/?tag=

I figured the 150w will be more than enough for my 80cm long 30gallon tank

The Eheim Jager is the one I last bought. I have it in my 33g tank, and I believe it is a 200w heater. I would recommend a 200w for your 30g (I have two of this sized tank so I've a good idea of their shape).

Edited to read 200w, not 220.
 
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The Eheim Jager is the one I last bought. I have it in my 33g tank, and I believe it is a 200w heater. I would recommend a 220w for your 30g (I have two of this sized tank so I've a good idea of their shape).

cheers :), ill have a shop around, amazon only have them from 50/100/150/200/300
 
Just a RANT from me - Heaters are the most frustrating pieces of equipment you can buy and, of course, it is critical that they work well - so when you have a heater set at a certain temperature but your thermometer registers 1-3 degrees different you have to wonder which piece of equipment is the problem. I've been buying the very best heaters (Amazon best choice and great reviews ) and they still aren't accurate.
 

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