90 Gallon Heater

[jmifland]

I am about to start the cycle on my aquarium. It is currently being leak tested and I am also going to hook up the Digital Aquatics RKE controller and put the heaters into the sump. That way I have everything ready and placed the way I want it for when the tank is ready to go. In my old tank I only had one heater that was running off the controller and it would stay at exactly 79.1*. This is the first time I have had a decently large aquarium and I am curious what I should go with. Would it be a good idea to run two 250w heaters that way if one fails there is a back-up. Please let me know what you suggest.

 

[ReachTheSky]

Two small heaters is a wise idea if they're going to be running on their own thermostats, but since you're going to be running them on a controller, it is not a necessity.

 

[jmifland]

Do you know what wattage I should be looking for? I want something that can keep the tank at a good temperature but not be required to run 24/7.

 

[ReachTheSky]

It depends on how cold your house gets, how much heat your equipment puts out and so on. But I would honestly say unless you live in the Arctic or Antarctic, you're probably overdoing it with two 250w heaters.

Maybe this reference will help. I had a 90g tank and sometimes my house would go into the high 50s/low 60s during winter when we'd leave a window open in the living room. I had 2x 150 watt Jager heaters and they kept the water at 77-78 degrees with no problems.

 

[jmifland]

Living in Florida even during the winter it only gets around 72* at the highest during the day. I have never had the need for a chiller though but the apartment does reach 76-78* during a normal temperature day which is anywhere from 80-90*. I will use what I have already while it is doing a leak test and see if it can do the job.

Edit: I like the avatar you have.

 

[ReachTheSky]

Aha! You know most folks living in hot/humid climates don't even use heaters. The hot air obviously drives temperatures up and the high humidity does not allow tanks to evaporate much so they maintain a lot of that heat throughout the cooler night. You also have to keep in mind that in-tank equipment contributes a lot to heat.

I like your avatar too. lol

 

[Dave Thebrewguy]

I have a 90 gal in my basement, the temp around the tank is steady in the low 60's all winter and gets into the high 70's in summer. When I ran T5s, I had a 200w Eheim Jeager that kept the tank around 78 year round, it barely ran at all in the summer. I started having trouble shortly after I switched to LEDs, when the temp started dropping in the fall, the heater struggled to keep up. I switched it to a 300w and it's been fine all winter. Now that I've changed my sump around, I'll probably put the 200w back in and add a second one for redundancy, the 2 of them are more than enough and if I see the duty cycle climb I will know one has quit on me.

 

[jmifland]

I will probably just grab one 250w heater that way if temperature does become a problem the controller will be there to utilize the heater. I'm sure the return pump and powerheads will heat the water to a reasonible temperature.

I will be running LED lights so I don't think I will be getting too much heat from them. They are going to be inside a canopy but the entire back side is open so I don't think heat will be an issue with those.

Thank you all for the replies!