Hydor External Heater

[arobinson1984]

I have purchased a hydor eth external heater from charterhouse-aquatics which arrived today.

I went for the 300w as I require a 16mm diameter internal hose size and charterhouse don't do the 200w in a 16mm only in the 12mm.

When it has arrived I have realised that it states for a minimum of 200l and my tank is only 125l so what would happen if I used it? would it burn out? or would it be dangerous?

Why does it matter regarding tank size because surely even if I have a 100l or 600l, my eheim would still be pumping through the same amount of water (litres) an hour regardless of tank size?

Any advice would be great, I may have to sell / return this and search for the 200w 16mm version

Andy

 

[DJ ArKaDaRkA]

I have purchased a hydor eth external heater from charterhouse-aquatics which arrived today.

I went for the 300w as I require a 16mm diameter internal hose size and charterhouse don't do the 200w in a 16mm only in the 12mm.

When it has arrived I have realised that it states for a minimum of 200l and my tank is only 125l so what would happen if I used it? would it burn out? or would it be dangerous?

Why does it matter regarding tank size because surely even if I have a 100l or 600l, my eheim would still be pumping through the same amount of water (litres) an hour regardless of tank size?

Any advice would be great, I may have to sell / return this and search for the 200w 16mm version

Andy

im sure it will be fine because it will only heat to the temp you set it anyway

 

[K-Holed]

Historically, the problem with using a heater that is over rated for your tank size is if it gets stuck in the "on" position. The larger the heater, the quicker your fish boil. I haven't had any recent experience however, so they may well have fail safes for this sort of eventuality now.

 

[pippoodle]

should be ok just keep an eye on it
any heater that goes wrong can go very high temp wether its too large or not

i only have heaters on 3 of my tanks dont bother on the others as the room temp is fine for them

 

[rdd1952]

As mentioned, you always have the risk of it malfunctioning and overheating the tank. Obviously, that risk is always present but as mentioned, the larger the heater, the quicker it will heat the water. I will say that I run 2 of them through a pair of Fluval 305s on my 75 gallon which has been running since April of 2005 and I have had no problems what so ever with them.

 

[AdAndrews]

i was told by a member that if it stuck it would "nuke" the tank, however i spoke to a few more people that have them and re-assured myself that no one they knew have had problems with this heater, sticking. so thats good enough for me, i am getting one for my 125litre soon too

 

[arobinson1984]

Thanks for the quick replies, they are advertised as "super safe" so we shall see. I'm now just waiting for my eheim to arrive now as they were sent in different packages and the eheim somehow managed to get delivered to the depot in a different city lol Should be here tomorrow so I'm looking forward to getting it set up along with a hydor koralia powerhead.

I wont be using the heater until the eheim has seeded because I still have the internal heater in, but once the eheim has seeded I'll be removing my jewul internal filter, heater and housing.

I'll prob set the heater abit lower at around 24-26 as it is normally fairly warm in the room the tank is in so I'll keep an eye on it and if I come across a 200w version in the 4-5 weeks I'm waiting for the eheim to seed, then I may buy one and sell this 300w one to be on the safe side.

Slightly off topic, how do I go about seeding the eheim? Do I just run it alongside the internal filter for 4-5 weeks? and how do I know when I am ok to remove the internal?

Andy

 

[AdAndrews]

you could do it by running it in an existing tank for 6-8 weeks, and then transfering it on the day you get your first fish, although i am going to do fishless cycle, add ammonia, there is a calculator on this site to work it out how much you need, then test daily and watch the spike dissapear, failing this you could try fish in cycle, which has been my method on 3 of my tanks, add ahrdy fish such as wcmm(white cloud mountain minnows) bout 10 in your case, feed sparingly and do 50%wc every day, keeping an eye on the stats to make sure they dont get stressed

EDIT: sorry, under impression you were getting a new tank, just run it along side internal for 2 months

 

[K-Holed]

Yeah, just run the two side by side. You could put some of the filter material from your old one into the Eheim, but if they're running side by side for a few weeks, the bacteria should form regardless.

 

[rdd1952]

Agree with the above. Also if the new filter is stronger, i.e. higher flow rate, it will end up with the higher bacteria count since more water, thus food, is passing through it. So if you run them together for 6 or 8 weeks, you shouldn't see any issues with a mini cycle once you remove the old one.

 

[arobinson1984]

Thanks for the replies.

The tank I'm adding the eheim to is over a year old now so I'll run it alongside the internal jewul filter for 6-8 weeks. I'm guessing there isnt really any way to test if the bacteria has formed properly due to the tests obviously being inaccurate with two filters running.

Andy