Interesting debate.
The way I see it is, I have two heaters for redundancy. One is probably enough to keep the temp stable. So why have two coming on, using twice the power, since like you say, they are pretty high wattage.
Is two on for a short period different than one for a longer period? That I don't know.
As far as failure goes, our house drops down into the 60's at night. I'm not comfortable with that temp for my reef.
So I just want one heater to run the majority of the time and if it fails or can't keep up, the second will kick on.
Maybe there is a way to use Programmable Logic to have the second kick on after the first has been running for a certain time period to help with efficiency?
Thought I would post this from Bean Animal: http://www.beananimal.com/articles/aquarium-heaters-what-you-need-to-know!.aspx
Good explanation for using multiple heaters, redundant controllers and other items of heater interest including why thermostats are unreliable.
Bob