What brand and type of Heater do I need?

[jaredpilot]

Setting up a 160gallon with a sump. I'm planning on keeping the heater in the sump and was wondering what are good brands for heaters? I was told to stick with a titanium and preferably one that has a controller to regulate the heat and prevent runaways. I've found a lot on ebay that are fairly cheap but I understand the dangers here...any suggestions?

 

[Chichas01]

I like the Stealth heaters. It's been realiable for me for the last 4 years and they don't shatter if you drop/or bump them:
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=12060

 

[trido]

Ive had three Ebo Jager 250's on my tank for four years without problem. You should use more than one heater and size them smaller as a fail safe system. If one sticks on, the tank wont heat up to boiling in a few hours and will give you time to hopefully catch the problem. If one quits working, there will be a second heater to take its place and the tank will only cool slowly giving you time to catch that as well.

 

[Red C Aquarium]

look for made in germany! We stand behind only eheim jager.

 

[blakejohn]

I use 2 Stealth 250w on my 110. They work great and carry a full lifetime warrenty.

 

[young_skywalker]

I like Jagers and the new Fluval E series ones have been working well for me

 

[PCFishman]

I've been using titanium aquarium heaters (ViaAqua, Catalina) but there are a lot of other brands out there.

 

[roblou]

I have been using Stealth heaters for the past few years w/o problems, until just recently when 1 quit working (stopped heating all together). When I inspected it, a 2 inch section in the plastic had split open and I could see the inside slightly. Did not appear to be a melting of the plastic, just looked like the plastic shell cracked open like it was brittle or something. I called customer service & even though I don't have my original receipt, since it carries a lifetime warranty they said I could mail it in for repair/replacement (they did warn me that w/o receipt they would only honor the warranty 1 time, which seems fair enough).

Very glad there was no electricution or meltdown, etc. And, very happy with the response I got from customer service. Hopefully I'll get my replacement back soon...

 

[1fishkeeper]

I also use Stealth heaters. I guess they won my trust when I use to breed Discus. I would have the heat cranked up on them to around 89 deg for months at a time with no problems at all. I have put them through hell and they are all still working just fine.

 

[jaredpilot]

Do you guys use controllers with this? If so, is there any cheap and reliable ones out there?

 

[trido]

This is a single stage controller. I use the dual stage since I also have a chiller. Very reliable