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Tank heater quit.


fishoutawater

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That sucks man. Can you give us the details? Lots of heater questions come up and it's always good to hear about which ones go on the fritz. 

 

What brand/size etc?

 

Heaters are a mostly under-appreciated piece of equipment. If a light breaks it's no big deal and can be replaced fairly easily (obviously expensive). If a pump breaks the tank can probably go a few hours or more and as long as you toss another one in there's really no issue. But a heater that sticks on or doesn't come on at all can destroy a tank in no time....sucks.

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Safe bet is to run multiple lower wattage heaters. I'm currently running 4 200w heaters on my tank.

 

All four heaters are plugged into a power strip that is controlled by my apex.

 

I'm no apex fan boy, but when it comes to controlling/monitoring heating/cooling, an apex is hard to beat.

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All tank heaters will fail at some point.. Period! Regardless of brand it is bound to fail, and such a critical piece of equipment has the potential of wiping out an entire tank. I would invest the money into some sort of controller whether it be an apex to monitor or something as simple as a JBJ Heater Controller. The few extra bucks now can potentially save you thousands in the long run.

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Thanks for the suggestion Exodus. I have always worried about the heater I use for my system. It's a high quality one but it will most likely fail some day. It also has a temp swing of 4-5F degrees daily.

 

On your advice I just ordered a JBJ temp controller. Really neat little piece of equipment! What a peace of mind. I will plug a secondary heater in to use as a backup. This will also really level out the temp swing. Thanks again, you have really helped me out of a potential disaster I wasn't sure how to avoid.

Edited by youcallmenny
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Hope everything goes okay fishoutofwater. Interestingly Woody from Seahorse was always a strong advocate for not using heaters. I don't recall the rationale but it was something about not needing them. I suppose if your tank is indoors and you don't have a lot of sps that probably is the case. I never tried it though. I know for sure blue mushrooms make it through most things..

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Hope everything goes okay fishoutofwater. Interestingly Woody from Seahorse was always a strong advocate for not using heaters. I don't recall the rationale but it was something about not needing them. I suppose if your tank is indoors and you don't have a lot of sps that probably is the case. I never tried it though. I know for sure blue mushrooms make it through most things..

Funny you should mention that Kim! Robert doesn't use any heaters also if I remember correctly, he simply heats his house haha! And we all know how successful he is with corals and fish!

 

 

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Funny you should mention that Kim! Robert doesn't use any heaters also if I remember correctly, he simply heats his house haha! And we all know how successful he is with corals and fish!

 

 

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I did not know that and it does make sense when you think about it. It's not like the ocean is a constant temperature and I have seen more issues with heat than cold damaging my sps.  We don't have a heater on the seahorse tank because the are less prone to a parasite that Colby mentioned at his talk but I have since forgotten which one and it really does not get that cold.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Wow I've wondered if anyone doesn't use heaters, what would you all think about not using a heater in a tropical fish tank with just guppies? I just personally hate the look of a bulky heater in freshwater tanks, do you think it would be safe? Sorry to hijack your thread!

 

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