Heaters

[My2heartboys]

OK, I thought I was doing a good thing when I bought a Won titanium heater with remote temperature control--the thought was "Gee it will make tweeking the thermostat now and then so much easier." Yeah, right. It had been getting pretty chilly here at nights, so last Saturday night, I plugged it in and turned the thermostat way down. I was doing out of precaution more than anything. Just did not want my poor little fishies and corals getting too cold. Well, my husband and I woke up Sunday morning to a tank temp a toasty 84 degrees. Trust me, that is not where I set that darn thing. We get two fans going on it immediately and then temp came down to reasonable within a couple of hours. Haven't plugged it in since. Fortunately I have mostly softies with a couple of LPS so I did not loose any corals. Had one that was pretty grumpy with me most of the week, but even it is starting to come around.

Needless to say that I am now shopping for a new heater. Now to ask the loaded question.... What heaters do you guys use???

Anne

 

[ronj]

i have the Via Aqua titanium heaters..those are the only ones i will ever use..i love them..they too have the thermostat controler that is seperate from the heater...it makes using them so easy!!!!!!! no more guessing how hot or cold it will get when you turn the heater on!!!!

 

[Elmo18]

Ebo-Jager Heaters (by Eheim now.)

That's all I will use. However,...as hopefully you know, all heaters are just ticking heat bombs....as you never know what can happen without a controller...

Here's a place to get them from...and you can get a RF discount:

http://www.customaquatic.com/customaquatic/subsubcategorypage.asp?subcatindexid=he-aq-gl

Best,
Ilham

 

[DonW]

I agree with Elmo. Ebo-Jager with a ranco controller.

Don

 

[jetaero]

Man... you're lucky... My WON proheat went to 92... :|

-Josh-

 

[Slickdonkey]

Won heaters have a bad rap. I've never had one but I've heard the stories many many times...

 

[prbhasson]

Agree with Elmo18 and DonW. Ebo Jager is all I use. Never had a problem with them.

 

[ninjamini]

With heaters costing $20 we should get in a routine of replacing them on a regular basis. All heaters will eventually wear out and get stuck in either the on or off position. Neither option is good unless you like reeficle or reef soup.

 

[moortim]

I have used both Ebo-Jager's and Via Aqua with good success. I had an old Via aqua that just died so I am trying out a Catalina heater. I haven't had it long enough to really need it (my tank temp hasn't dropped low enough to turn it on). Time will tell.

Tim

 

[burning2nd]

im useing the won lcd pro, no problems

how long did you have yours?

 

[DonW]

I think most folks pay to much attention to other things like lighting and skimmers and dont put near enough effort into temp control, probably the most common failure.

Don

 

[Curtswearing]

I think most folks pay to much attention to other things like lighting and skimmers and dont put near enough effort into temp control, probably the most common failure.

Don

I agree Don.

A Rainbow Lifeguard Alarm Thermometer saved my bacon one time when my heater's thermostat got stuck in the on position. I kept hearing a beeping. When I went to investigate, my tank was waaaay overheated. BTW, when you have a glass heater that hasn't turned off in who knows how long, make sure you unplug it and let it cool off before pulling it out of the water. I just unplugged it and set it on the concrete in my fish room. The darn thing exploded and sent glass shards EVERYWHERE.

 

[Slickdonkey]

I agree with Curt. I have one of these too and they're worth the price. My current tank is only 3 months old and it's already saved me three times:
- Once when my Aquacontroller temperature probe came loose and was reading ambient air temperature
- Once when I manually turned the heaters on to heat the water and then forgot to turn them back off
- Again when I forgot to turn the topoff back on and the water level in my sump dropped such that the probe was no longer in the water

Highly, highly recommended. And cheap.

 

[My2heartboys]

im useing the won lcd pro, no problems

how long did you have yours?

Maybe 3 months. The LCD pro is one of the ones I am looking at. Believe me, I am shopping around this time to see what is out there and at what prices. I doubt the beeper would have helped this time as we were both dead asleep.

Please know that I continue to seek out responses as I want to know what others have to say. Yes, I did start with the list of RF sponsors.

Anne

 

[burning2nd]

i have the lcd, on the sump and the regular turn nob one in the RO holding tank

its bin about 6 months and i havent had a problem.

But i was told that they were a problem

guess im just gonn have to find out

 

[twilliard]

How many people buy something like a 100W heater (on 120G), crank the stat on it and let the chiller control the temp??

Thats what I do. Why not let the $600 chiller control it rather than a 20$ heater LOL

 

[Slickdonkey]

Well I guess that works too, never heard of a chiller sticking on but I guess it's still possible! :lol:

 

[jezzeaepi]

"How many people buy something like a 100W heater (on 120G), crank the stat on it and let the chiller control the temp??"
Ehh, you have any idea how much money your wasting on power?

 

[Slickdonkey]

"How many people buy something like a 100W heater (on 120G), crank the stat on it and let the chiller control the temp??"
Ehh, you have any idea how much money your wasting on power?

Looks like about $5.76/mo at 8.8 cents/kWh

 

[jezzeaepi]

Thats just the heater portion. That energy must in turn be counteracted by the energy used to cool the water by the chiller(which usually use 600+W). So hes probably using atleast 200-300w an hour to accomplish nothing, at a price of 150-200 dollars a year.

This still does nothing for the problem of having redundancy. Hes still relying solely on his chillers temp controller. Hardly better then relying on your heater, and certainly not worth 150+ a eyar when you can get a temp controller for 100 bucks.