New Marineland Heater... Anygood?

[floppyfish]

I just bought this Marineland heater called the Visi-Therm Deluxe for $30 buck. It says its "Certified Accurate Within One Degree." Does anybody know if its anygood. I know Marineland has pretty good products normally but since it is new, and I also bought a Marineland Penguin 1140 Power Head(300gph) is this too much for my 20g? I bought the 550(145gph) origanally but thought I could go higher. But since that was the next step up and I didn't want to buy a cheap power head, so I figured I could ask you people the "experts". So what do you think?

Thanks ahead of time, Matt

[Guest LudavicoTechnique]

Truth is, most heaters do the exact same thing. If you have enough wattage (at least 3 watts per gallon) then you are allright.

[floppyfish]

Ludavico-Its a 100 watt'r, too big? but I didn't see a 75 watt'r, 50 but thats too small. How bout the power head?

[cmoreash]

no, a 100w is just about perfect. I personally prefer ebo-jager, and acura heaters for my tanks.

[Guest LudavicoTechnique]

As long as you have enough wattage, it's good. You can always turn it low, but if it's too small you cant turn it up high enough. That size is fine.

[Kapelakin]

That's the perfect size. I use the rule of thumb of 5 watts per gallon for heaters, though for Ebo's I go down to 3-5. Of course it depends on where the tank is located, how much it has to bring up the temp from ambient, etc.

 

All heaters are not created equally though. Don't find this out the hard way by buying a cheap heater and coming home to a boiled reef when the thing short circuits itself and fails to shut off. That is also the case for using the smallest wattage heater that can keep you tank temp steady. If it fails in the "on" position, it will take longer to overheat the tank.

 

HTH