Is My 150W Heater Gonna Be Enough?

[Grant1897]

Hi guys. The tanked I purchased tonight came with a 150w heater. I'm a little worried its not gonna be enough for the tank which holds 180 litres of water. I've read that you should aim for 1w per litre? So I'm guessing I will need to get somthing more powerful. Assuming im right and i do need to get a replacement would you guys reccomend going for a 200w? Or would it be better to go for somthing more powerful?

 

[ShinySideUp]

Hi guys. The tanked I purchased tonight came with a 150w heater. I'm a little worried it's not gonna be enough for the tank which holds 180 litres of water. I've read that you should aim for 1w per litre? So I'm guessing I will need to get something more powerful. Assuming I'm right and I do need to get a replacement would you guys recommend going for a 200w? Or would it be better to go for something more powerful?

You might find your 150W is OK because the capacity given for aquariums is usually the total capacity of the glass i.e. right to the top and with no ornaments, substrate or pipework. A tank is never filled to the top and there is always decoration and substrate of some description so your 180 litre tank will probably only contain about 140 litres of water thereby allowing use of your 150 Watt heater. If you just want to add a bit so your heater isn't being overdriven you might consider adding a 100W heater at the other end of the tank to even out any temperature difference.

Heaters aren't the most expensive things to buy though so a 200 or even 300W heater wouldn't do any harm IMHO.

 

[Grant1897]

Thanks for the advise, very helpful

Thinks im gonna order a 300w, would rather have 1 heater than 2. And if I'm gonna buy a 200 I may aswell spend an extra couple of quid and get 300.

 

[ShinySideUp]

In case there are large variations in room temperature against required tank temperature have a look at this site:

Heater size guide

 

[OldMan47]

If you do not have a well controlled environment, I would suggest that you switch to the 200W heater. It is not that I want you to spend more money but you are far too marginal with that 150W heater unless you happen to have a stable temperature in your fish room.

 

[Grant1897]

If you do not have a well controlled environment, I would suggest that you switch to the 200W heater. It is not that I want you to spend more money but you are far too marginal with that 150W heater unless you happen to have a stable temperature in your fish room.

Thanks for the advice mate. Will definately upgrade to 200w as I'd rather spend a little more money than have problems in the future. Do you think it's worth going for anything bigger than 200? Like 250 or 300?

 

[stu40]

Thanks for the advice mate. Will definately upgrade to 200w as I'd rather spend a little more money than have problems in the future. Do you think it's worth going for anything bigger than 200? Like 250 or 300?

Adding a 2nd heater to your 150W, will give you redundancy, but means more kit in the tank.
Juwel Rio 180L comes with a 200W as standard.

 

[Grant1897]

Thanks for the advice mate. Will definately upgrade to 200w as I'd rather spend a little more money than have problems in the future. Do you think it's worth going for anything bigger than 200? Like 250 or 300?

Adding a 2nd heater to your 150W, will give you redundancy, but means more kit in the tank.
Juwel Rio 180L comes with a 200W as standard.

I got my tank second hand, and it came with a 150w heater. I'm not planning on using two heaters, just getting one more powerful one.

 

[Man of fish]

I'd gp for the more powerful as you're planning

 

[Aqua Tom]

The main difference with heaters & their power rating is the amount of time it will take for it to heat the volume of water. If you put a massive heater in a small tank it will hardly ever be on as it heats the water very quikly. If you have an undersized heater it will be switching on & off much more often as it tries to keep the temprature up & as such will probably fail a bit earlier.

Moral is, get the biggest heater you can afford & that looks right in your tank.


tom