Increasing temp????

[GovernorG]

Hey everyone, so far I am set up and cycling. Very very excited about this.

Regarding water temperature, mine seems to be low around 70-72 degrees Fahrenheit. I have a 300W heater in my sump and a 75G tank.

Any suggestions for increasing the temperature of the tank.?

Side note - I am still waiting for the glass top to arrive so the tank in uncovered currently.

 

[GovernorG]

The heater is a ViaAqua 300w Quartz heater.

 

[dkeller_nc]

Presuming that you have the heater control set correctly, and also presuming that your room temperature is around the 70 degree mark, 300W should be easily capable of pushing your 75g + sump temp into the mid to high 80's.

I'd consider replacing the heater; it doesn't sound like all of the elements in it are working.

 

[GovernorG]

Will look into the thermostat in the house. Watch for a day or so and then consider the heater issue. Thanks.

 

[Sk8r]

Never trust a heater thermostat. Mine says 72 and keeps the tank at 80.

 

[disc1]

Yeah, temperature controllers are a must unless you want to just continually experiment with where to set that heater to get the desired temperature.

 

[Art13]

i've learned with aqeon or however you spell it if i want the tank at 78 i have to set it at 74.

BTW, thats just my experience with 2 of their submersibles that i've had.

 

[dkeller_nc]

BTW - I'd consider replacing the heater with a higher-quality one, and strongly consider David's (Disc) advise about using it with a heater controller. For a high-quality heater, the Eheim Jagers and Cobalt Accu-Therm/Neo-Therms seem to be the brands that most experienced folks on the forum choose. Another alternative is a Finnex titanium heater with a controller (the titanium heaters don't have a thermostat, so a controller is required for this set-up).

Heaters are very inexpensive compared to the cost of the livestock in an average reef tank, and it has one of the highest risks of a malfunction killing everything in the tank.

This is one reason that many choose to have two lower-wattage heaters rather than one large heater. If one of the heaters fails "on", then its lower wattage means that the temp in the tank won't rise as fast as if a larger, single heater fails "on".

That's also the reason many choose to run a heater with a thermostat that's also plugged into a heater controller. If the heater controller fails "on", then the heater's internal thermostat will prevent the tank from over-heating. If the heater's internal thermostat fails "on", then the controller's thermostat will prevent the tank from overheating.

 

[Goldndoodle]

i've learned with aqeon or however you spell it if i want the tank at 78 i have to set it at 74.

BTW, thats just my experience with 2 of their submersibles that i've had.

It's not just Aqueon ... my Fluvals that I use in my QT and TTM tanks are all set to 74 degrees and keep those tanks in the 77-78 degree range.

For my DT, I use 2 Finnex 300W titanium tubes connected to an APEX for temp control. Temp controllers for a DT are a good idea - basically turns the heater on full blast until a secondary temp sensor says the water is warm enough, then it turns them off. You don't need an APEX to do that, there are some inexpensive options for temp controllers - like THIS.