Heater recommendations
- Thread starter Rocky998
- Start date
Eheim jager are highly regarded. Ive also used Tetra's "Tetratec" heaters alot without any issues
The heater is the single most important piece of equipment for an aquarium. The light can fail, the filter can fail, without serious harm (assuming the tank is biologically balanced and the failure is caught within a reasonable time); but not the heater. I had a tank of fish "cooked" overnight when the heater remained on. Others have lost fish to cold when the heater failed. This is the one item where it definitely pays to get good quality.
The Jager mentioned by @AquaBarb is in my experience reliable and trustworthy. I don't know anything about the Tetratec. But don't scrimp on this. You also want at least a 200w, maybe 250w, for the 3-foot tank you have (from the other thread). Higher wattage tend to be more reliable in my experience; the heaters that have failed on me over 30+ years have always been low wattage.
The Jager mentioned by @AquaBarb is in my experience reliable and trustworthy. I don't know anything about the Tetratec. But don't scrimp on this. You also want at least a 200w, maybe 250w, for the 3-foot tank you have (from the other thread). Higher wattage tend to be more reliable in my experience; the heaters that have failed on me over 30+ years have always been low wattage.
A sensible approach is to install two heaters roughly 50% the power of a single heater - expect to install two 70 watt heaters then you have some redundancy should one fail. Get one that’s set in a cage to avoid fish and plant damage, setting one of the heaters 2 deg C lower, this ensures alternate or both heaters working. Lower wattage heaters work fine.
Uberhoust
Fish Herder
I have traditionally used Ebo Jager heaters, they have worked well for me. I have also recently used Fluvial M-Series heaters, they are also working well and easier to place. I have a Top Fin that came with a tank I purchased, the tank is very good, but the heater is very poor, the water proofing died soon after it was installed. My recommendation would be to purchase a heater with the correct wattage for your tank, or slightly more, but don't get the cheapest one. Effectively there are three failure modes for heater:
- Heater doesn't heat - Water temperature drops, how fast depends on the size of the tank and the ambient temperature outside the tank. Generally an electrical connection issue or the thermostat is not turning on.
- Heater doesn't turn off - Water temperature rises, the larger the heater and the smaller the tank the faster this occurs. You can end up cooking the fish. I expect some of the better heaters if sensing heat above a certain set point will automatically shut down. Generally a problem with the thermostat or connected circuits.
- Heater undergoes catastrophic failure - Ie broken tube, can electrocute fish. The better heaters use better glass for their tubes that are more resistant to breakage.
OP
OP
Ok thank you. Ive read tons of crazy boiling fish alive horror stories and was worried. I will definitely look into Jager
OP
OP
Do you think 300w is better or should I stay within 200-250w?
OP
OP
My home runs (almost constantly) at 70 degrees and I want my tank to be around the perimeters of 77-80 so Idk if that changes anything with the amount of wattage...
This is a 65 gallon tank. My 70g was 4 feet long, and I had either a 200w or a 250w heater at both ends, so two of them. Tanks up to 3 feet in length should be adequately heated with one heater, but if yours is over this length, definitely two.
It does raise another point though, and that is that aquarium heaters are intended to keep the tank temperature somewhere around 10-15 degrees of the ambient room temperature. This is usually more significant in winter. They are not constructed to heat "cold" tanks up to 70-something, but to keep the tank water at 70-something in a room that is not too far from that temp.
I just posted on the one or two, 200-300w issue.
OP
OP
If I decided to have 2 heaters what wattage should they be... Or should it still be 200-250 if I have 2?
Yes. They are more reliable. Two 200w should do you here.
If you're worried about the fish cooking/freezing stories, you can also get alarms that alert you when the temp falls outside of a certain range. I have some on my Amazon wishlist. I was fortunate that when when my heater broke overnight in the middle of winter, that the only fish in the tank were guppies, and could cope with the tank slowly dropping from 78 F to 63 F. They weren't happy about it, but they survived it.
Getting the right heater and set up for safety is one of the most challenging equipment issues we have to deal with I think. @Byron is right (as usual!
) that it's the one piece of equipment that we can't afford to have fail on us, but has gone wrong all to often for most of us at one point or another.
Getting the right heater and set up for safety is one of the most challenging equipment issues we have to deal with I think. @Byron is right (as usual!
) that it's the one piece of equipment that we can't afford to have fail on us, but has gone wrong all to often for most of us at one point or another.
OP
OP
Have you had any experience or at least heard of Hygger?
OP
OP
Ive seen hygger on Amazon and wasnt sure about them... Also was wondering about fluval...
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