First Winter w/ Our Tank - Heater Help Needed!

[TwoPenguins]

Hi Reef Friends,

This will be our first winter with our 240 gallon tank. I have about 15 years experience in aquariums, but always in smaller tanks - heating this large volume of water is new for me. Any suggestions or recommendations? I did once have a heater fail in one of my smaller tanks, killing all my fish - so needless to say, I am gun-shy when it comes to heaters.

What size/brand would you all suggest? We are willing to spend the money for something safe and reliable.

Also, where do you suggest placing the heater(s)?

Thank you so much for your help!

Jaek (not a typo) & Nedda

 

[ericarenee]

i use two 500w titanium heaters jbj brand i think connected to a rain-bird controller the controller also connected to my chiller. having the controller is like double protection..
my heaters are in my sump skimmer chamber so the water level never changes with the heater wires just above the water level..

 

[TwoPenguins]

Thank you so much for the feedback!

 

[FirstContact]

i use two 500w titanium heaters jbj brand i think connected to a rain-bird controller the controller also connected to my chiller. having the controller is like double protection..
my heaters are in my sump skimmer chamber so the water level never changes with the heater wires just above the water level..

Are the titanium heaters fully submersible?

 

[ericarenee]

yes most of them are as far as i know the ones i have have no thermostat built in you MUST use a controller. but i still have the wire just above the water level. Just in case..

they are a coral worm magnet.. i clean mine one a month when change my Carbon reactor media

 

[SAO]

I would go with two titanium heaters so if you require 1000 watts of heating power get two 500w heater that way if one fails and stays on it will not be big enough to cook the tank before you see there is a problem. Unlikely both heaters fail at the same time. or if one fails and doesnt come on the other one will at least stay on until you can figure out whats going on.

 

[moondoggy4]

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=3578+3743+33100&pcatid=33100 I really like these heaters and another nice thing is they have two round bumpers on the end so they do not actually touch the bottom of the sump. Only thing is that they need there own controller I like the Ranco controller not sure if they have a double unit.

 

[TwoPenguins]

Thank you everyone!!

 

[Voodoojar]

I had a heater kill my tank before. Now I run two with their own seperate contollers to turn off at 79 and I have them plugged into my neptune apex and have that turn off the heaters at 80. I set it up the same way with low temp.

This setup gives me peace of mind because of the redundancy.

 

[FirstContact]

I had a heater kill my tank before. Now I run two with their own seperate contollers to turn off at 79 and I have them plugged into my neptune apex and have that turn off the heaters at 80. I set it up the same way with low temp.

This setup gives me peace of mind because of the redundancy.

Yup, that's the way to do it. Although a lot of people adjust the individual heater thermostats to be a degree or two higher than the controller **** off.