Inline Heaters

[mc524]

Since I am in the market for heaters to hear my 135, I have been reading posts, and looking at stores.
Has anyone used any of the Hydor Online Heaters? The water passes through the heater, instead of typical tank heaters.
What have you had the best luck with?

Thanks

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[acroholic]

I used the Hydor in-line series for several years in FW tanks. Good heaters IMO. Only issue is, unless they have a new model, is the ID of the widest one is 5/8", so if you plan on using 3/4" ID return lines, you might be restricting flow back to the DT.

Most folks use the Eheim brand of heater or Titanium heater tubes hooked up to a controller. I use two 500 watt Ti heaters controlled by an RKE.

 

[mc524]

Yeah I was thinking a guy would just dump that heated water back into the sump...mainly pump section.
I am assuming you have to hook a pump to this so wouldn't matter if you used the return pump or just a circulating pump would it?
I am looking at the Eheim Jager heaters as well. I would likely do either two 250watt or two 300 watt heaters. One as a back up heater.
Question on that, do you typically set then up to be at the same target temp? Or set one at 80° and the back up at say 77-78°?

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[acroholic]

MC524;813292 wrote: Yeah I was thinking a guy would just dump that heated water back into the sump...mainly pump section.
I am assuming you have to hook a pump to this so wouldn't matter if you used the return pump or just a circulating pump would it?
I am looking at the Eheim Jager heaters as well. I would likely do either two 250watt or two 300 watt heaters. One as a back up heater.
Question on that, do you typically set then up to be at the same target temp? Or set one at 80° and the back up at say 77-78°?

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You could return the heated water to the sump, although that is not the most efficeint way. I believe the typical FWl hookup for the Hydor ETH inline is to hook it into the return line from a canister filter. I had it inline coming from an Eheim canister. You could tee off your return pump or use a manifold if you have one.

The Eheim Jaegers would work well for you. Main draw of the Hydor is you can adjust it without getting your hands wet, IMO.

The Hydor ETH uses heat transfer ink to heat the water. No metal heating elements involved. Interesting technology.

I'd set them both to the same temperaure. Then the work is spread evenly between them, and you can still maintain the temp or minimize drift up or down if one of them fails or gets stuck in the "on" position. Plug them into a controller if you have one as an added precaution, and set the controller to cut off if the water temp goes a couple degrees higher than the Eheim Jaeger's internal thermostat.

 

[mc524]

In regards to putting it back into the pump section, I was thinking of it in the same regards as our current type heaters. Course it is not designed t HD St way...as you mentioned it is supposed to be used along with a Canister filter.
It was a thought. Haha I liked the idea of it working more like a hear pump.
I will likely go with the Eheim's setup as you mentioned. I don't have a controller yet. I still need a pump and a controller.
I will likely go with the Neptune, still undecided with the pump.

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[mc524]

Ordered two 300W Eheim Jager heaters last night. Should be here sometime next week. Not bad, Amazon had them for $24 ea. Call it $28 ea with shipping added.