Best place for heater

[jbadd99]

I keep mine in the overflow and the temp probe is in the tank.

For those that say this wouldn't heat the tank if the return pump is off I disagree - from experience. The overflow will get really toasty and heat the rest of the tank. Two dangers here. First, if the pump begins working again (or in my case you remember to turn it back on) it causes a rapid spike in the overall temperature of about 3 degrees (depending on tank size - I have a 120g). Second, I worry about tank failure from the glass weakening due to differing temperatures.

My $0.02.

 

[kilralpine]

Water is a very good conductor for heat, I doubt the heater being in an overflow vs in the corner of the tank without an overflow will make much difference. Not enough to cause a tank to separate or shatter due to difference in temperature. Keep your heater in the same body of water as your temp probe and you shouldn't get spikes? Or are you referring to a temperature drop when your cold sump water reaches the top? If temp probe is up top and heater is down bottom the temp will drop and keep your heater on, at which point the water in the sump will come up to whatever the cutoff temperature built into the heater is set at. I keep a heater up top and a heater down bottom, my temp probe is in the sump (which only has issues when I am in the middle of water changes). Both have an 80-82' cutoff so that even if the temp probe gets exposed to air and drops the temp the heaters still wont "overheat" the water. Either way i have to disable my lower heater when i do waterchanges simply because it gets exposed. One in both reduces temp fluxuation as long as they are both set to a reasonable cutoff point relatively close together. Only annoying part is running the sump dry during water changes. I have considered moving my probe up top.