Turn UP the HEAT or BUY MORE HEATERS?!

[revhtree]

The QOTD was inspired by this thread!

Today let's talk about heaters, heaters and more heaters for your aquarium! But not just for your aquarium but for your aquarium DURING the winter! So winter comes, it cools down outside and inside and it takes more watts to keep all that water warm! So what do you do? Turn the heaters up, turn the house heat up or buy another heater? Let's talk about it!

1. If you notice your aquarium water temperature trending down during the colder months what do you do? Increase the temp on your current heater(s), turn the house heat up more, add another aquarium heater or something else?

2. How many heaters do you run, how many total watts, and how many gallons of water do you have to heat?

 

[shakacuz]

currently turned up the heat in the home. but, am considering getting a stronger heater and swapping one of my two 100W BRS heaters out. may even put a small heater in my ATO as it's causing my DT water to fluctuate.

 

[LiveFreeAndReef]

More heaters! Electricity is cheaper than heating oil hahaha

 

[Saltyreef]

Why would you turn up the thermostat on the heater???

If a heater is undersized it will never turn off regardless of how much you increase the thermostat.....

The tank needs more wattage if the heaters cant keep up. Bigger heater or more heaters.

I run 3x heaters on my system. 2 keep it optimal 9 months out of the year.
The other 3 months is when my 3rd heater picks up the slack set 2 degrees below the others.
With the ranco controllers i can actually set it 1 degree below and be perfect all year round. With the cheaper controllers 2 degrees seemed to work better so the 3rd heater wasnt coming on all the time.

 

[Malcontent]

About 200 gallons and roughly 7,500 W of heaters. I have a lot of...redundancy.

Edit: most of the heaters are sitting in boxes unused. I literally have boxes and boxes of new Fluval E heaters that I sometimes give out as gifts. I have a 1 x 500W IM Helio PTC heating my main 125 gal tank (with the 2nd 500W heating element sitting in the box). Smaller QT tanks have a single Fluval E or old-style Aqueon Pro.

 

[LRT]

Buy more. Redundancy is crucial for too many reasons, failure, extending life so 1 is not constantly working etc..
I have 3x300 watt heater in both my 80's around 110-110 gallon total water.
Wife keeps house around 60-70f all winter so its always hoody weather in the house haha. Anyhow 2 are set at 76 in sump. Inkbird kicks the 3rd on in each tank when it needs to help out.
If you have dedicated fish room and run cold temps it would be good idea to put small space heater in fish room set to come on at safe low temp.

 

[Jubei2006]

Why risk nuking the tank? I would rather have a small single heater go out and cause a small temperature dip, or stick on and only be able to heat the tank up 2-3 degrees. That is much better than one big heater going out and really dropping the temp, or sticking on and heating the tank to something unlivable. Heater failure are the number 1 killer of tanks right?

 

[Saltyreef]

Why risk nuking the tank? I would rather have a small single heater go out and cause a small temperature dip, or stick on and only be able to heat the tank up 2-3 degrees. That is much better than one big heater going out and really dropping the temp, or sticking on and heating the tank to something unlivable. Heater failure are the number 1 killer of tanks right?

Yep...thats why you should use a reputable controller, and multiple lower wattage heaters running. Its the best failsafe ive used.

Also keep the thermostats unsubmerged if theres one built into the top of the heater. I found the eheim jagers dont work right or last for crap when theyve been submerged.

 

[JNalley]

my tank is solidly 8 degrees F above ambient, pretty sure my heater doesnt even turn on (have its set to 76 and tank is consistently 78). So if tank temp falls its because ambient fell, so I just turn up heat in house

 

[Susan Edwards]

I voted other. My house temp is around 69-70 during day. I don't heat at night until the house temp drops to 62-64 and only have heater set to 62. During day as long as house stays around 68-70 I don't heat. Hubby uses a space heater in his office lol's. I have one I use if needed in my office where the tank is or in my craft room. I like having doors open a bit to let in fresh air. Also, my 240 gal is in my small office, so that window stays at least open a few inches for humidity. Will have to add a dehumidifier.

I have a 300w finnex heater/controller and a 100w to maintain 77-78. I plan to get another 200 or 300 w to add for the colder months. I have an inkbird ready to control that.

I have heaters in the ato and the 20 g saltwater brute (for awc) in garage and in the big saltwater mixing container.

 

[Reefstick555]

Like others in the thread, more is better. You should always have at least two in your system simply for redundancy, wear/tear and as a back up. Then for winter months have a third for taking the chill out. I always put mine directly in water flow. Oh and shatter proof design are nice to have... from experience.
Just my opinion...

 

[blaxsun]

1. My temperature never trends down. The tank is in my basement which always stays roughly the same temperature regardless of season.
2. I have three heaters: two primary/secondary Schego titanium heaters of 300 watts each through an Inkbird and a tertiary backup Hygger titanium heater of 500 watts controlled directly by the Apex (it's only kicked in a few times to assist after a lengthy maintenance). A single 300-watt is probably capable of maintaining ~78°F on it's own, so I've got multiple redundancies built-in. These are allocated to a 200-gallon Red Sea system.
2a. I've also got a "spare in the air" Hygger 500-watt titanium heater for emergencies along with another four 150 watt Cobalt Nethorm and Fluval M-series heaters.

 

[Surskit]

my house is pretty inconsistant at keeping its heat even with an ac unit and a heater, so i don't think raising the temperature would actually accomplish much, it's much better to get more heaters in my situation

 

[WVNed]

Heaters make a fixed amount of heat based on their wattage. Turning one up does not make it produce more heat.

If you need more you have to use a bigger heater or add more of them.

 

[attiland]

The QOTD was inspired by this thread!

Today let's talk about heaters, heaters and more heaters for your aquarium! But not just for your aquarium but for your aquarium DURING the winter! So winter comes, it cools down outside and inside and it takes more watts to keep all that water warm! So what do you do? Turn the heaters up, turn the house heat up or buy another heater? Let's talk about it!

1. If you notice your aquarium water temperature trending down during the colder months what do you do? Increase the temp on your current heater(s), turn the house heat up more, add another aquarium heater or something else?

2. How many heaters do you run, how many total watts, and how many gallons of water do you have to heat?

split the heaters in 2 is always safer. That means you can't cook the fish. Just look at the title of my build tread you will understand why i am saying that

 

[TheDragonsReef]

My philosophy is the tank should be able to operate on its own and maintain water temp regardless of the house temp. Cause once you get the tank perfect and have all the sps colonies amd other corals you ever wanted, that big snow strom will hit and your home heater will fail. You wont be able to get to the fish store cause its closed due the storm and youll be boiling water to try and keep the tank warm only to still lose your favorite corals. Same goes for places with hot summers, that heat wave will hit and the air conditioner will go out leaving your tank to fry, but a chiller wouldve saved it. You just never got one cause you didnt think you needed it since the ac always kept it cool enough.

Obviously these are extreme scenarios and will only happen in places where the climate is a little more extreme, but it happens more than you think. That being said i do recommend multiple smaller heaters over one big heater. That way if one fails it cant cook the tank as easily.

 

[design.maddie]

I just realized my temps are dropping due to lowering temps outside. I live on a raised house with minimum insulation underneath. I think what I want to try is just buy a larger more capable heater. I currently use the BRS Titanium heater but I want to jump up about 150w to around 300w. That would put me around 10w/gallon roughly.

 

[boacvh]

Other. I do nothing at all
I have two heaters. a 300w Cobalt (which was absolute overkill noobie mistake where I could have saved some money) and then my second heater is 100% natural SOCAL weather

 

[Reefstick555]

Keep in mind that standard aquarium heaters are single stage On/off. Have multiple heaters will actually give you more stages of heat, less fluctuating water temps. If set right, on a mild day, only one heater will run. On colder nights the second would pick up the slack.

 

[i cant think]

The QOTD was inspired by this thread!

Today let's talk about heaters, heaters and more heaters for your aquarium! But not just for your aquarium but for your aquarium DURING the winter! So winter comes, it cools down outside and inside and it takes more watts to keep all that water warm! So what do you do? Turn the heaters up, turn the house heat up or buy another heater? Let's talk about it!

1. If you notice your aquarium water temperature trending down during the colder months what do you do? Increase the temp on your current heater(s), turn the house heat up more, add another aquarium heater or something else?

2. How many heaters do you run, how many total watts, and how many gallons of water do you have to heat?

I run 3 over 2 tanks. Ones a 20g total tank (Red Sea Max) and the others a 125g total (4’x2’x2’ display and 2’x1.5’ sump). Both tanks stay around 25 Degrees Celsius every day. When it’s in the colder months, I tend to keep all heaters running and the radiators are usually on (Cons to being in the UK, it gets cold quickly during autumn/winter). It seems warm enough down in the sump of my 125g to the point a sponge has decided it’s going to grow over the heater’s handle/Plugs.
Correction:
I run 4 heaters total (I just found a 3rd heater in my 125g tank)
Here’s a photo of their placements and the sponge growing on one: