When Heaters Attack!

[onthefly]

Ok, since Chufa and Nanoreefer53 have had runaway heaters this week, I find myself in a paranoid stuper watching the temp on my tank.

 

I'm wondering, what heaters have peeps used/tried, and what was there experience with said heater?

 

Personally, I used 2 Tronics (100W and 150W) on my tank. They've worked great, even in the fridge wind tunnel I call "mi casa". However, after years of good service, I have found that in the last year I've had to slowly adjust them up, up , and up every few months or so. I think it's time to replace them.

 

I think we talk so much about LR/LS, HOB's, Skimmers, Fuges, and pumps more than the one piece of equipment that can turn our tanks into Hot tubs or Ice boxes overnight!

 

Any thoughts or input?

[SeaMountain]

2 words... Ebo Jager!

 

[caja]

I've got a visaa-them that is needing to go away. I had one before that cooked my cycling tank to a toasty 100 degrees. I haven't gotten around to getting a really good one, just picked up another visa-therm for the time being.

[lostdog]

I have a Visitherm 25W in my daughter's 10g FW tank, and it occasionally has trouble turning off when I've turned the lights on. Normally kept at around 77 degrees, I've seen it as high as 85. Now when I turn the lights on I unplug the heater... I should try placing the heater in a bucket of water and see what it does without the lights.

 

But I have 3 other VisiTherms (150W, 50W, 25W) that I haven't had trouble with. The 150W is about 5 years old now, but the others are new.

[cjm033]

i had an acura that went out in my 2.5 and my bicolor blenny died,Chris

[Nishant3789]

ive had no troubles iwth my tronic, i think they are a very good brand. now for all u ebo jager people, how long have u had their haeters? if a tronic is good for 4 years i think thats a VERY good lifespand i dont mind replacing one every 4 years.

[jdiver]

I only put Ebo Jager heaters on my tanks anymore. I've had three Ebo Jager heaters in place for about a year (1 on my 7, and 2 on my 150 FW), and the temp stays locked except for a degree or two increase during hot summer days. I have three other Ebo Jagers that have been in place from 3-6 months, and again, no issues at all. I've had an Acura heater and a VisiTherm cook freshwater tanks in the past, so I avoid them.

[SeaMountain]

Same here jdiver... I've had heaters on my FW tanks in the past and always had to jack with them it seemed like. But the Ebo-Jagers I have now - a 50w in the 10g and a 75w in the mix-tub - all I do is "Set it and FORGET IT!!!"

 

Or wait a minute.... Maybe that was my last Ronco infomercial purchase... Hmmm... Can you cook a chicken with an Ebo-Jager!?!? Damn I better go check the chicken!!!

 

[LiQuiD]

In this 55 gallon (to the right of the nano-reef and above the nano-dog) I have had the same Visi-Therm 200 watt going for about 9 years now. I personally have never had a heater problem (knock on wood) that I can speak of. I have a different brand in every tank in my house which would almost cover every heater on the market and have never had a problem with any. I hope this relieves your paranoia about your heater cooking your tank any time soon. Some break, some don't, luck of the draw I guess. Good luck, and relax.

[TiGs]

I have an Ebo Jager 75W and a Visa Therm 50W. I have to set my Viso Therm to 68 degrees for my water temp to be around 78 degrees. I doubt I will be buying a Visa therm again. The Ebo Jager is working great so far.

[reefan]

I personally feel that heaters can be a hit and miss deal. Yes the more expensive ones are safer but flaws will get through no matter what. I feel the best way to cope with this is (1) Do not use heaters with to many watts. Find what the minimum is to keep the water at your temp at the middle of winter with lights off. Finally get a digital temp with an alarm. This will at least let you know as soon as possible.

JJ

BTW I use vista-therm on most my tank and have been happy.

[lostdog]

Any reccomendations for a digital thermometer with alarm? All I've got now is the stick on side of tank kind...

[jdsabin1]

Originally posted by lostdog

Any reccomendations for a digital thermometer with alarm?  All I've got now is the stick on side of tank kind...

I found this at Marine Depot:

 

http://www.marinedepot.com/a_tk_rb.asp?CartId=

[zizmans]

I have Visatherm and have had no probs. I've also talked with a few people after reading about Chufa and 53 (felt really bad for them). They seem to be fine with them, but it does make one worry. I've never heard anything bad about Ebo Jager. None of the LFS carry them here though so it would be an Online purchase.

[~_~]

Originally posted by jdsabin1

I found this at Marine Depot:

 

http://www.marinedepot.com/a_tk_rb.asp?CartId=

 

I use that & it works good. Since it's digital and easy to read, it gives you a more accurate look at what your temperature changes actually are. (which might suprise some people when they see the temp sway allot more than there non digital)

 

The alarm on mine wen't off for the first time about a week ago in the middle of the night. It woke me up.

 

Just don't get it wet, because it's not waterproof.

 

:|

 

I use a ebo jager for mixing saltwater, and use a Super Won Bros Titanium heater for my nano aquarium.

 

I switched to the wonbros titanium for my tank because its allot smaller than the ebo's, but also because its not made out of glass & has an external temp control as well.

[BustytheSnowMaam]

OK, everyone can flame me for this....but my brilliant suggestion is- go heaterless. I've had my tank for about 15 months. I took my heater (a Tronics, which worked great for me) out for the summer- and just never got around to putting it back in for the winter.

 

My house is kept at 70 degrees; the tank temp is 74 degrees during the day with the lights (2 x 32 PC) and seems to only go down a degree at night. My nano has hardy creatures only, so maybe that's why my tank is successful- I have a pair of clowns, a pair of pep shrimp, 6 assorted hermits, a cabbage leather, toadstool leather, some xenia, and various zooanthids.

 

Of course, if the temp dropped any lower, I'd put the heater in- but I think the key here is not so much how high the temp is but consistency. My house consistently 70 degrees, so the tank temp doesn't seem to vary much. I should add I've never had an algae or cyano problem either- I don't know if this is attributable to the temp or just dumb luck.

 

Tasha

[wmfink]

I live in an apartment in NYC that has temperature fluctuations comparable to only maybe Death Valley. My solution for my 15 was to buy a 75 watt Ebo Jager heater (the most reliable heater I know of) and a MicroChiller (costs around $150) which I installed into my Aquaclear 200 filter. I tried the temperature controller device (sold separately). It sucks. Couldn't turn the screw to set the temperature and then the screw just flat out broke on me. So I have the MicroChiller on a timer. It goes on when the lights go on and then periodically during the night for a hour at a time. I set the heater at 77 degres. The first month or so there were flucuations between 76.5 and 77.8 as I used trial and error to get the right amount of chiller time. Now that I have found the right amount of use for the chiller my temperature stays at 77.2 24/7 while I freeze and bake in the apartment. It's not foolproof until I can get the damn temperature controller thing to work, but it will do for now.

[mauro]

I'm personally doing without heaters (living in Italy I really don't need them but the refrigerator!).

But I lived in Germany as well and there heaters are must!

The safest, albeit costly, solution is to take a digital temp controller and plug into it an heater (set for the desidered temp).

In this way the temp controller monitor the temp and if it is too high it will shut down the heater (no matter if it is shutiing down by itself or not).

This is a very safe solution infact heaters don't shut down because the two metal contact stuck, if you have a digital controller on top it will do the shut down even the heater is stucked.

 

ciao

[FSUreef]

Mauro is right.

Most heaters get stuck because little metal parts stick together, causing the heater to stay on constantly. That's why it's imperative to check your heaters regularly for condensation/corrosion. If you see your heater begin to get little droplets inside the heater tube, or if you see the insides begin to oxodize, it's time to get a new heater.

 

Personally, I replace all of my heaters once every year. It's an expensive purchase, but I really have no desire to see fish stew one morning.

 

Cheers!

Hunter

[caja]

I happened to find this while trolling through sites looking at info on different types of heaters.

 

http://saltaquarium.about.com/library/week...aatpheaters.htm.

 

Sadly, they don't list the Ebo Jager, which is what I was thinking of going with.

 

Anyone here using the Rena Cal Excel?

[MKramer]

I have a Rena in my 5g and have been pleased, but it's only been running for six months.

 

My Ebo in my 10g has been reliable, although seems miscalibrated (tank never goes over 81deg, but the Ebo was set to 78, before I started using a controller). I've had that one for almost two years.

 

My FW Angel tank (18t) has a 100W visatherm that has so far been reliable to within 1 deg of the selected temperature. It's only a month old, though.

 

I want to give another "hear! hear!" to the digital thermoter advice. My 10g has a homemade controller with digital temp probe, so I now have the Ebo set to 83, as a fail-safe, but the controller turns it off when the probe hits 81. The other two tanks have the above-linked Lifeboard Little Time or Temp thermos (under $20 a piece). It's a nice extra piece of mind.