Best titanium heater?

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DeepThought

New member
My Finnex 500w heater started to put current in my tank and electrocuted my hand. I thought that if it does that to me, then it can't be good for my fish or corals,.... So, I pulled it out and threw it away and I am using a temporary heater for the time being.

What is the best brand of titanium heater for a 75g SPS dominated tank that I can control with my Apex controller? What wattage would you recommend,... I have had a friend tell me that 500w was way overkill.
 
For a 75 gallon tank 500 was too much. Finnex is a good brand don't let one bad one suede you from trying another. Even BMW's break down as do every other electronic on earth. iphone, windows pc's, bubble king skimmers, profilux controllers etc... get another finnex 300 watt.
 
ok. 300w then.

my return pump keeps powercycling. it's an old pump. it keeps cutting itself on and off in 30 second intervals. know anything about that?
 
DeepThought said:
ok. 300w then.

my return pump keeps powercycling. it's an old pump. it keeps cutting itself on and off in 30 second intervals. know anything about that?
Click to expand...

I don't take chances with return pumps, or heaters for that matter. Replace the pump with a reputable brand. Eheim, sicce, Laguna and tunze to name a few. Amazon has Laguna pumps in the low. Look into it.
 
Yep stay away from finnex they have issues one is when the power goes out they come back preset at 80 oF just so you know, Eheim Jager is the best. The pumps are reputed for being work horses of the industry, i don't have one , but i only hear good things about them.
 
DeepThought said:
ok. 300w then.

my return pump keeps powercycling. it's an old pump. it keeps cutting itself on and off in 30 second intervals. know anything about that?
Click to expand...

One thing i like to do DT is split my heaters; i like to buy two but half the power i need or close to it. You should for example buy two 250W or two 200W. The reason is; if one fails in the middle of the night on a sunday when everything is closed in winter time, your not left without heat for you fish the other one is there to take the slack and keep you a float till you get another one. For $ 30 you can save hundreds $$ of fish and corals and cleaning crew. Lot of people do that. It wont use more power its just an insurrance againts bad luck.:frog:

Of course their's the ultimate bad luck power failure for 48 hours, thats another ballgame altogether.:blown:
 
i've been running the Finnex Deluxe Titanium Heating Tube for years without any problems, IME they are a great heater. but with any heater I would use a temp controller along with it. I personally use a Ranco.
 
Today I set up a brand new 50watt fennix heater in my QT tank and got a steady shock! Unplugged it and the shock went away. I'm only running an air stone so no pumps are the culprit. Maybe we bought the BMW from the same batch! I'll try another one as I had a larger one that worked fine!
 
I have been using finnex heaters, the element only ones, for years. The only one that died was one that I left cooking without water during a water change.

IME, the best set up is a heater only(no internal thermostat) on a Ranco controller with a reef controller to either be a fail safe or just to alert you something is wrong. Never rely on the hobby heaters to be the only heater control.
 
+1 from what James said in the second part of his post. I have had great success with Jaggers. And I'm not trying to be a jerk but you didn't get electrocuted, if you did then it would be very hard for you to post here on rc. Electrocuted means you died from a shock. Chances are your fish and coral may be fine from the stray current because they are the same potential as the stray current. It's the difference of potential that gets people. It's when the current wants to go to ground ie when you stick your hand in the water and provide a path to ground. I would be willing to bet that you were bare foot or touching something that was conductive or that was a different potential then the water. Think of the birds on a power line, they land on the power line and nothing happens to them. It's because they are not providing a path to ground and hence the same potential as the wire. And nothing happens to them. The fish are the same as the birds as long as there isn't a path to ground or a difference of potential. Chances are if you are not touching anything while you stick your hand in the water and have good shoes with a solid rubber sole that will insulate you from ground, you should not get shocked even if you have stray current in the tank. This is why I never stick my hands in the tank without wearing shoes. Good rubber soled shoes. It's not worth it. Hope this helps again I'm not trying to be a jerk, electrocution = death.
 
I've gone through Finnex and Coralvue titanium heaters in the last 3 months. Both started leaking current back in to the tank. I would not recommend either.

I've now gone with a Jager. So far no issues but it is very big and makes placement a bit of challenge.
 
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