Heater requirement ?

Idech

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I’ve never had a sump so not sure how to size the heaters. I like to use 2 heaters paired with an Inkbird.

I currently have 2 x Eheim 200 watts (with Inkbird) in my 75 gallons sumpless tank. New tank will be 4 foot, 110 gallons and sump 36 x 22 x 15 high so maybe 30 gallons when filled.

Will 400 watts be enough ? The house goes down to 18 C at night and the tank is heated to 25.5 C. Temperature is about 21 C during the day.

If not enough, how much is needed and what is a good brand ? I have always used Eheim and they’re my favorite, but the 300 watts is 20 inches, so very long.

Thanks !
 

davidcalgary29

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Will the tank have a lid? What equipment will be running on it? I find that thermal exhaust from, say, a Sicce 1.0 will add about 1C to the running temperature of a tank; all of that adds to your heat load.

I had a bad outbreak of either dinos or chrysophytes in my RSM250, which I was running without a heater and had a consistent winter temperature of about 22-23C. I added a heater, brought the temp up to 28C, and most of my problems disappeared within a week. There's something to be said about keeping tropical marine aquaria...tropical.
 
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Idech

Idech

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Will the tank have a lid? What equipment will be running on it? I find that thermal exhaust from, say, a Sicce 1.0 will add about 1C to the running temperature of a tank; all of that adds to your heat load.

I had a bad outbreak of either dinos or chrysophytes in my RSM250, which I was running without a heater and had a consistent winter temperature of about 22-23C. I added a heater, brought the temp up to 28C, and most of my problems disappeared within a week. There's something to be said about keeping tropical marine aquaria...tropical.
Pump will be an Ecotech Vectra M2. The skimmer is a simplicity DC 240.

Probably 2 powerheads in the display. Eventually I want to get a Jebao gyre.

eta : that’s good news. Hopefully I can just keep my existing heaters.
 

gbroadbridge

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I’ve never had a sump so not sure how to size the heaters. I like to use 2 heaters paired with an Inkbird.

I currently have 2 x Eheim 200 watts (with Inkbird) in my 75 gallons sumpless tank. New tank will be 4 foot, 110 gallons and sump 36 x 22 x 15 high so maybe 30 gallons when filled.

Will 400 watts be enough ? The house goes down to 18 C at night and the tank is heated to 25.5 C. Temperature is about 21 C during the day.

If not enough, how much is needed and what is a good brand ? I have always used Eheim and they’re my favorite, but the 300 watts is 20 inches, so very long.

Thanks !
1 Watt per litre is a safe rule of thumb, I'd normally use two heaters - so 300 litre = 300W or 2x150W.
You can go higher if the house gets really cold during winter so 1.5W per litre.

When I did a winter vacation with house empty and dropping to around 12deg C, 1.5W per litre was keeping up
 
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Idech

Idech

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1 Watt per litre is a safe rule of thumb, I'd normally use two heaters - so 300 litre = 300W or 2x150W.
You can go higher if the house gets really cold during winter so 1.5W per litre.

When I did a winter vacation with house empty and dropping to around 12deg C, 1.5W per litre was keeping up
The new tank would be 529 gallons with the sump, so 2 x 300 watts ?
 

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