Let’s talk about heaters

[beardedman11]

I’m in the process of setting up 135g cube and wanted to know everyone’s opinion/experience on heaters. I’ll have a icecap 30 sump and was wondering what ppl with this size tank are running. A single 600w
Dual 300w
Dual 200w

Thanks let me know how everyone heats up their reef.

 

[Kooma]

Dual 200s, slower increase.

Inkbird controller

Back it up with a apex to iverride the inkbird if it fails on.

 

[Impunitus]

In my limited experience (1 year in reefing, but had done fresh tanks when I was a kid) multiple heaters is always the way to go.

If you lose one, you are not completely up the creek and have something that is still putting some heat into your tank. Likewise, if you have one that goes haywire (and your controller does not stop it) you only have 1 dumping all of its energy into trying to boil your tank.

In your case for 135g display (unsure if a sump is involved here) I'd go for the 2x300W. If you have a sump absolutely the 2x300W. Being in Florida I'd say without a sump you may be able to get by with the 2x200W, but if you were in a colder place (IE me in NY) I'd absolutely lean towards the 2x300W.

 

[beardedman11]

Dual 200s, slower increase.

Inkbird controller

Back it up with a apex to iverride the inkbird if it fails on.

Thanks. Have an inkbird and was planning on hooking them both up to apex controller for double protection.

 

[beardedman11]

In my limited experience (1 year in reefing, but had done fresh tanks when I was a kid) multiple heaters is always the way to go.

If you lose one, you are not completely up the creek and have something that is still putting some heat into your tank. Likewise, if you have one that goes haywire (and your controller does not stop it) you only have 1 dumping all of its energy into trying to boil your tank.

In your case for 135g display (unsure if a sump is involved here) I'd go for the 2x300W. If you have a sump absolutely the 2x300W. Being in Florida I'd say without a sump you may be able to get by with the 2x200W, but if you were in a colder place (IE me in NY) I'd absolutely lean towards the 2x300W.

Thanks. That was kinda of my idea/logic behind it too on the dual set up.

 

[Impunitus]

My recommendation is also with my house not being tight, and the tanks being nearish to windows/outside walls! If your house in buried inside the house on an inside wall, you have less of the concern that I do driving my type of recommendation.

As @Kooma mentioned, multiple smaller is slower swinging, so more stability. I'm just a fan of going on the high side as a single 300 could likely limp your tank along in the event of losing one of the heaters completely.

Glad you have a controller (Inkbird, I am a fan of my Helios personally) and intend to have backup monitoring with your tank controller as well. Belt and suspenders as they say!

 

[beardedman11]

My recommendation is also with my house not being tight, and the tanks being nearish to windows/outside walls! If your house in buried inside the house on an inside wall, you have less of the concern that I do driving my type of recommendation.

As @Kooma mentioned, multiple smaller is slower swinging, so more stability. I'm just a fan of going on the high side as a single 300 could likely limp your tank along in the event of losing one of the heaters completely.

Glad you have a controller (Inkbird, I am a fan of my Helios personally) and intend to have backup monitoring with your tank controller as well. Belt and suspenders as they say!

Yesh I like the dual 300w just to be on the safe side during winters. It can be 80° Friday and 50° Saturday to have it back at 80° by Monday. With a dual bigger watts that’ll keep the tank more stable.

I went thru my junk box and pulled out BRS and 2 inkbird controllers from break down buy outs. lol

 

[Kooma]

My recommendation is also with my house not being tight, and the tanks being nearish to windows/outside walls! If your house in buried inside the house on an inside wall, you have less of the concern that I do driving my type of recommendation.

As @Kooma mentioned, multiple smaller is slower swinging, so more stability. I'm just a fan of going on the high side as a single 300 could likely limp your tank along in the event of losing one of the heaters completely.

Glad you have a controller (Inkbird, I am a fan of my Helios personally) and intend to have backup monitoring with your tank controller as well. Belt and suspenders as they say!

Dor context, i run a 300 and a 250 watt on my 250 gallon. That heats the tank 1 degree F in about an hour and it takes 6 hours to come back down.

I want to decrease that swing to 8-12 hours, and I am thinking about running a 150-200 watt heater at a slightly higher temp on the Apex to give the swing a slower drop or raise. Ideally id like to have the tank come up over 3-6 hours, and drop down over 12-18 hours.

Im thinking if i have a 150 watt on 24/7, and ask my 250 to come on when needed, the drop will be very slow and may even reduce my energy use.

I may experiment with that to see how i can drop the swing to as slow and gradual as possible.

 

[Impunitus]

Dor context, i run a 300 and a 250 watt on my 250 gallon. That heats the tank 1 degree F in about an hour and it takes 6 hours to come back down.

I want to decrease that swing to 8-12 hours, and I am thinking about running a 150-200 watt heater at a slightly higher temp on the Apex to give the swing a slower drop or raise. Ideally id like to have the tank come up over 3-6 hours, and drop down over 12-18 hours.

Im thinking if i have a 150 watt on 24/7, and ask my 250 to come on when needed, the drop will be very slow and may even reduce my energy use.

I may experiment with that to see how i can drop the swing to as slow and gradual as possible.

I run 2x200 on an SR60, again colder climate and I want 1 heater to be able to manage the tank in the event of a complete loss. A little overkill, but tank temp has been rock solid for a year (Hydros monitoring only goes back a couple weeks, but the graph always looks like this unless I'm doing a WC).

I have the Helio set to 78F and monitor with Hydros with a shutoff in the event of hitting 80, turning on at 76

 

[Malcontent]

Using two heaters doubles the risk of water leaking into a heater. This is the most dangerous failure mode.

 

[Kooma]

Using two heaters doubles the risk of water leaking into a heater. This is the most dangerous failure mode.

Always run a GFCI for the tank outlets. Worry about yourself, not your fish.

A GFCI outlet will trip the moment a heater shorts. Including a grounding probe on the tank in my opinion is mandatory for safety, especially with two prong heaters.

Do not use a grounding probe without a GFCI outlet. You will electrocute yourself or your fish if a heater breaks.

 

[BryanM]

Two 200s is plenty.