Heating large tank

[tazdvl100]

Hi everyone.

What are you guys using to heat the larger tanks??
I have a 125 with 40 gallon sump. I currently have 2 300 watt heaters in there and i can't get it to stay above 78 degrees. I might have a bad heater not sure.

Any recommendations on a heater for that tank??

Chris

 

[hkgar]

2 300 watts heaters should get the job done. The general recommendation is 2.5-5 watts per gallon.

https://www.thesprucepets.com/aquarium-heater-size-guide-1381033

 

[mcgyvr]

What is the ambient temp?
600w should be more than sufficient to keep a tank of that size at 78+..
I ran 2 x250w on mine without any issue..

 

[tazdvl100]

What is the ambient temp?
600w should be more than sufficient to keep a tank of that size at 78+..
I ran 2 x250w on mine without any issue..

Ambient temp is about 68*. It sits in the warmest room in the house.

 

[mcgyvr]

Ambient temp is about 68*. It sits in the warmest room in the house.

That's right around the point where 5x may not be sufficient.. Typically the 5x works for up to about a 10 deg delta.. (Depending on other variables like surface area/evaporation rate,etc...

Personally I've been without heaters for 2 years now and think that there is little harm in running tanks well below the typical 78-80 deg recommendations..
I keep my house at 68 too in the winter and my tank runs at about 70 deg F.
Corals don't seem bothered at all.. Fish/urchins/cucumbers,etc... don't either..

I'd recommend you not worry about keeping your tank above 78 vs throwing more heaters/electric costs at it..

 

[aikenreefkeeper]

Mcgyvr,

What is your temp range from winter to summer? Are you running a chiller in the summer to keep the temperatures down?

Thanks,

Dean

 

[mcgyvr]

Mcgyvr,

What is your temp range from winter to summer? Are you running a chiller in the summer to keep the temperatures down?

Thanks,

Dean

In the winter my house is heated to 68 deg F and the tank stays at 68-70 deg F..
In the summer my house is cooled to 76-78 deg F and tank runs 78-80F

No chiller.. No heater..

 

[hkgar]

In the winter my house is heated to 68 deg F and the tank stays at 68-70 deg F..
In the summer my house is cooled to 76-78 deg F and tank runs 78-80F

No chiller.. No heater..

do you lower the house temp at night in the winter? I lower to 62 at night and would think that could be detrimental if not having heaters for the tank.

 

[mcgyvr]

do you lower the house temp at night in the winter? I lower to 62 at night and would think that could be detrimental if not having heaters for the tank.

No I do not.. I maintain a constant temp day/night..

 

[djryan2000]

I use aqueoun heaters with the finnex hc-810m to control the thermometers in the heaters. I strongly recommend either buying expensive heaters or a system like the finnex or Apex to turn on heaters - the internal thermostats are prone to breaking in either the on or off position.


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[hkgar]

I use aqueoun heaters with the finnex hc-810m to control the thermometers in the heaters. I strongly recommend either buying expensive heaters or a system like the finnex or Apex to turn on heaters - the internal thermostats are prone to breaking in either the on or off position.


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Everything has a finite life. It may be 1000's of cycles but everything will fail. Therefore redundancy for certain key parts is certainly smart.

I rely on Apex but have had an EB8 fail.

 

[Dmorty217]

I have heaters on my tank but never have to use them, tank stays at 80 during the winter and around 78-79 in the summer. Tank is in the basement located near the air handler

 

[sdbc]

I have a 125g with a 40g sump and keep it at 79 with 2 x 150w heaters. They don't even run that much. Something is off.

 

[jerseyboy]

why do you want it above 78°

 

[Dmorty217]

why do you want it above 78°

You don't necessarily want it much warmer than that but many run reef tanks at 80-82 degrees. 78 is the lower end of reef tank temps.

 

[five.five-six]

Different heaters do a better or worse job of heating your tank for the same wattages.

This is my antidotal opinion.

I have found that glass heaters, like the ehime ebo jager do the best job of heating per watt

I use 2 X 300 on my 225 and I have them staggered my .2 degrees, the 2nd heater rarely if ever comes on even though we let the house get down into the 60’s

 

[sdbc]

Living in SoCal, cooling is more of a problem than heating. During the summer, my house is around 80, so keeping the tank around 79 the rest of the year makes the slight bump during summer less of an impact.

Also, I'm using Ebo Jager heaters with a separate controller for turning on and off. I have the heaters and thermostat in high flow areas.

 

[MikeDaniels]

2 300 watts heaters should get the job done. The general recommendation is 2.5-5 watts per gallon.

https://www.petspest.com/fish-tanks-for-beginners/

Agree.

Taz, if you can't get it above 78 degrees with 2 heaters you likely have a problem with at least one of them.

 

[mann1139]

Could be a bad heater, or it could be that one heater is set too low.

 

[Cool tangs]

Lots of variables on this, like where do you live(climate) do you have aircon/heater. Depending but on average it sounds a simular setup to mine and 2x 300watt is good. My concern would be do you have a controller for them? Heaters are the biggest failure in an aquraium eco system, just be aware of this. I personally run one and they dont have to be expensive! Oh and some times your heater temp will be out