Trouble keeping temps

[Cjud7982]

Hey guys, it's that time of year again in the rust belt with cold weather. I did a 55 gallon water change on my display system of approx 230 gallons the other day. Water temp of new water was right at 78-79 After the water change I did some testing to double check everything and noticed my temp dropped way off. Down to just under 71. No casualties thankfully.

I thought I was running enough heater but apparently not, or maybe they aren't working right. I have a 300 watt Jager and a 100 watt Jager in my sump. As well as a 300 watt Cascade in my display tank for backup. All three heaters have been running non stop for the last two days and I am still only up to 74.5 degrees. My room fluctuates in temp a bit, gets down to 65 at night with a programmed thermostat and up to 72 throughout the day.

Does this sound like heaters not working right or just not enough heater? I am in progress with setting up an apex to help with the controls of the heaters too. So hopefully that will help.

 

[Coralreefer1]

Could be the lack of power put out by your heaters. You could try adding on another heater, or buy a heavy duty one that is actually rated higher than your tank. Also try using a blanket to wrap around the tank to keep heat in, especially at night.

 

[Retro Reefer]

You typically need about 3 watts per gallon maybe as much as 5 in colder areas, best achieved with multiple heaters in a tank the size of yours.

 

[Cjud7982]

Thanks for the replies guys :). It sounds like I am just under heated then. This tank was set up in the spring so the room was never getting this cold before. I'll add some more wattage to it and see how it does. I'll try and bring the temp up slowly over the next couple days to not shock the system.

I am sort of surprised because I did a bunch of searching on what size heaters others use on 180 plus sized tanks and the census seemed to be around 2 watts per gallon. But they may have been I warmer weather. Perks of living in the snow belt!!! Lol

 

[Retro Reefer]

Your actually not far off the general recommendation of 2.5 watts per gallon but in colder climates your probably going to need more