aquarium Heaters

pam0630 · Sep 2, 2013

which is the best heater to use for our aquariums...

i have a 250 watt heater i took out..cloudy inside.....and what is the best temp we should be running in our tanks.....mine is sitting about 76 degrees with one heater.......but feels cooler than that to me......

have two thermometers in tank to make sure temp is right.........

any suggestions...my tank is 125 gallon

Palting · Sep 2, 2013

"BEST" always brings out arguments. :) I prefer to approach this another way. What do you need? You need a heater that has enough power can maintain a set temp given the water volume and the ambient temp outside the tank. A 125 gallon tank within a home where the ambient temp generally is 72-78 F, 250 watts should be enough. In fact, with heat generated by the lights and submersible pumps and powerheads, it should be more than enough. What's the worst thing that will happen? Heaters most commonly fail by getting stuck in the on position, boiling the tank. There are two ways around this. One, get two lower watt heaters, so that if one should fail and get stuck on, it won't be strong enough to dangerously heat the tank. The other is to get a separate controller with a temp probe, like RKE and the like, and controls the power to a heater. If the temp goes up beyond a set temp, the controller cuts off power to the heater.

Having said all of that, mine is actually quite simple :). I bought 2 150W heaters for my 200 gallon system from the LFS, whatever he had and I don't remember the brand at the moment. Ran them both in the sump, set the tamp at 78. Later noticed they rarely went on, with the tank maintaining a temp of 78-80 in the summer and 76-78 in the winter. So, I took one off and now just have the one 150 watt in the sump that rarely goes on. I use the other one to heat up the water change water.