Are two 75W Jager heaters good for 75 gal?

[AT_Hiker]

I have a 75 gal. DT, and a 20 gal sump. If I run two 75W Eheim Jager heaters in my sump off of my Apex Jr., will that be adequate enough to heat the tank properly? The ambient temp in my house is between 68-72 degrees Fahrenheit.

 

[ADDsalt]

Probably not. You need at least 3 watts per gallon. You could try it though.

 

[Dr. Reef]

i agree, 250-300 watts. u can go 3x100watts. or 2x150watts. back them up with a controller.

 

[msaba]

I would think 150 watts total could work, really depends not only on ambient temps but other factors such as heat from lighting etc. as well. I have a 150 on my 75 in a office setting with 300 watts on T5 lighting and no problems keeping at 79 degrees...definitely a controller (even a dedicated heater one) is highly recommended.

 

[AWDcameoLSX]

I have a 200w in my display and a 150w in my sump. It is a 72 bowfront with same size sump so very similar. I know if my living room gets down to 62 degrees my heaters run almost constantly to get the tank up to 76. Two 75w heats would barely make a dent IMHO.

 

[AT_Hiker]

I guess I'll bump it up to two 100W Jager heaters. Next question: When running the heaters from the Apex Jr. can I run two heaters off the same port, by plugging a power strip into the port, or do I need to plug the heaters into separate ports on the Jr.?

 

[longdangler]

Run them off the same port. Ideally what you are looking for is a heater that will heat your whole tank, the second one would be for back up in case one would fail. Not two together that could barely get the job done.

 

[AT_Hiker]

Run them off the same port. Ideally what you are looking for is a heater that will heat your whole tank, the second one would be for back up in case one would fail. Not two together that could barely get the job done.

I've seen a lot of people say the opposite. That you should under drive your heaters, and have multiple smaller heaters that together equal your total required wattage. That way if one heater gets stuck in the on position it's a lot less likely to cook your tank. I take it that you don't agree with this method? Can you expand on why you don't like multiple small heaters?

 

[weebear]

I used two heaters one on either side of the tank and I think it worked well. I think two or more takes the stress off of just using one if they have enough wattage and they will last longer.

 

[a.browning]

I use 2x 200w heaters on my 75 gallon. One is pretty much always on, and the other is on probably 1/3 of the time to keep up the temp. This can be greatly affected by the air temperature inside as well.

 

[AT_Hiker]

I use 2x 200w heaters on my 75 gallon. One is pretty much always on, and the other is on probably 1/3 of the time to keep up the temp. This can be greatly affected by the air temperature inside as well.

Do you keep them set to different temperatures? Are they being run by a controller? My plan was to have two smaller heaters that are turned on at the same time by an Apex Jr. controller.

 

[JMorris271]

I always thought that both heaters would run until the water reached set temps.

 

[thenewguy997]

If its a cold rooñ then no, my room temp was 60 and i needed 2 300w to get 80f

 

[DVeit]

I run 1 200w jager in my 75g with 15g sump. The coldest my house got in the winter was 65 and my tank stayed at 77+. Granted my heater was pretty much constant on. But it rarely gets that cold in my house. Right now and during the summer the heater hardly runs at all. I keep my house at around 75 day, 73 night.

 

[kurt_n]

I've seen a lot of people say the opposite. That you should under drive your heaters, and have multiple smaller heaters that together equal your total required wattage. That way if one heater gets stuck in the on position it's a lot less likely to cook your tank. ...

Like most things in this hobby... several ways of doing the same thing, both with different pros and cons.

I've gone with the method you've mentioned... two heaters that are individually a little undersized for the tank. (I'm running 2x 100W on a 46g.)Have them both controlled by an Apex, with the same programming but on different outlets. That way if an outlet screws up, I at least have one operable heater. But then, I have enough outlets to do that. Otherwise I'd gang them on the same outlet.

 

[Dr. Reef]

heater failure is the most common disaster in this hobby, and more worse heater failure in ON position on top of that.
if you go with a little less watt heater but more in qty. this helps such disaster.
say if you have 3x100w heaters in a 120gal tank. one heater messes up and stays on and you dont catch it or not home etc, itself alone will not be able to boil your tank out while ur at work and return. Also if its backed by a controller then power will get cut off and thus causing no damage.
if one heater fails to turn on then u still have other heaters to atleast keep up the temp.
So heaters in this hobby are critical. i strongly recommend a controller and then few smaller heaters than just 1 big one.

By the way thanks for bringing the dead thread up over a year. lol its a good topic though