Aquael Ultra Heater 100

[Jaboizav]

Hi guys!

I’m after some big boy help. I’m new to the hobby and have a mini peninsula 25 from waterbox and I bought with it a 75 watt Aquael Ultra Heater and set it at 25 degrees C I think that’s 78 Fahrenheit? I then got a pair of clownfish and although they were eating and doing their thing something just felt a little off and despite the heater telling me the water temp was 26 it felt a lot colder to the touch so I bought a thermometer to test.

20.5 degrees? Weird maybe I should buy another thermometer this seems broken...

20.5 degrees again... oh dear

whacked the heater to full beans and got the temperature to 26. Great, fixed right? No because the heat kept on climbing to a point where it was getting too hot. So it’s turned it back down to 29 (on the thermometer) only to wake up and find my tank was 22.5 and falling.... I assumed my heater was too small for my tank but I have just bought a 100w and I’m getting the same issues. I have subconsciously trained myself to wake up during the night to check it showing how little I trust it and I would like that to stop for obvious reasons.

I also put both heaters in the tank at once and one was showing me the tank was 32 degrees and the other 20 degrees (at the time it was 23).

Is it just a ****** product or am I doing something wrong? Is there any 3rd party tools that I can plug the heater into to control the temp? The heater itself seems to work fine it’s just the thermometers and calibration that aren’t fit for purpose.

thanks for the help in advance!

 

[Tastee]

Lots of folk use Inkbird controllers for their heater instead of relying on the internal thermostat. You just set the heater thermostat a degree or two above the inkbird set point as a backup. I have a couple of Aquael heaters myself and find them quite reliable. Mine run off Apex units.

 

[Jaboizav]

Lots of folk use Inkbird controllers for their heater instead of relying on the internal thermostat. You just set the heater thermostat a degree or two above the inkbird set point as a backup. I have a couple of Aquael heaters myself and find them quite reliable. Mine run off Apex units.

I was looking at inkbird actually I’m going to try that. Yeah my lfs where I bought both from was surprised I had any issues but my house gets cold in the winter and I’d rather sort the issues out whilst it’s still a bit warmer! Thanks for your help!