Looking for a heater recommendation

jef4y

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Looking for 2 300w heaters for my soon to be 150.

I have a controller but would prefer to have heaters that have their own thermostats as well for the redundancy.

I don't need to cheap-out, but can't drop $100/ea on them either.

What would you spend my money on?
 
I use the a couple of the 300 watt jagers....worked well for me for years and i think they are like 40 a pop
 
gmpolan;762820 wrote: I use the a couple of the 300 watt jagers....worked well for me for years and i think they are like 40 a pop

+1^

I run 1 300w on 110gallon plus a 30 gallon sump and it keeps my temp stable with in 1* and this is stand alone . I think the main downfall to most heaters are there internal t-stats. Running any heater on a controller is always going to be better IMO, but this one seems to do well on its own

Edit: They have a 3year warranty as well. The only down fall for me was it didn't fit in my sump due the length. The 300watts about 20in
 
I only run the 300's as i have such a large system with Led's, if i were running a smaller set up/different lights, i might go with 3 200's in case one fails then you wont have such a drop in tempature
 
Just picked up an Eheim 300 W from Jenn during the sale. Price was pretty reasonable even without the sale.
 
I'm pretty partial to Fluval's E-series. Supposedly the most accurate you can get shy of an external controller-based model (and some serious $$$), and they have an LCD temp readout on the unit instead of just a red "heating" indicator. I also like that they cycle more frequently with less heating per cycle (mind you, some people don't as it take longer to hit a temp, especially in larger FW tanks where there's less water circulation). In my book this just means temp changes are smoother (think more like acclimating) and less likely to cause undo stress on my livestock. Once up to temperature, I've never seen the tank budge more than .5 degrees from set temp. Mind you, I'm using a 50W model in a 9 gallon tank, but a friend's got the 100W in his 34 gallon basement tank and has had the same experience. Only qualified common gripe I've read about is that people may need to choose one size larger than their tank's gallonage would indicate.

I would imagine two of these backed up by a reef controller would be about as foolproof as you can get.

You'll have to get them online (last I looked Amazon had em for a song) or at Optimum Aquarium in order to get a sane price on them, but so far mine's been dead-on accurate (periodically verified with temp gun against rockwork).
 
Great recommendations. Both are around what I expected to pay for a heater ~$35/ea. The Jaegers... 22"!?!?! shazam that's long. I run 1 in the tank and 1 in the sump. Getting one in the tank won't be a problem but the sump may take some work.

There the Fluval wins at 14".

More research to do!
 
I have the eheims as well. Are you sure you need to 300 watt heaters. I'm running approximately 300 gallons total and I have 1-100 watt and 1-250 watt with LED lighting, and they barely come on. I have a big pump, but it is fan cooled and then the pump from my skimmer.
 
RealFish;762855 wrote: I have the eheims as well. Are you sure you need to 300 watt heaters. I'm running approximately 300 gallons total and I have 1-100 watt and 1-250 watt with LED lighting, and they barely come on. I have a big pump, but it is fan cooled and then the pump from my skimmer.

I'm not sure I need 300's. The tank is a 150 and my sump is about 20, but combined after rock, etc I'll probably only be around 130'ish gallons of actual water. Will have LED lighting.
 
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