<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7760046#post7760046 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Eric Boerner
I disagree about the heater. You can more effectly heat your tank on staggered smaller heaters in seperate locations of the tank. If you toss a 500 watt heater in your sump, you are drawing 500 watts continously until your sensor reads the full tank is at your desired heat. This might be in 5 to 30 minute 'bursts' of heating, depending on how cold your room is.
If you ran 2 250 watts at seperate ends of the tank (overflows), 1 set 1 degree higher than the other, your 'bursts' of heating will draw less power, since only one will kick on predominately. Yes you will have it on longer than a 500 watt, but the legnth of time theyre vs current drawn will be less since the tank will be heating more evenly, than a single spot.
The 500w in this case will run just as often, for half the amount of time, resulting in the same amount of heat, for the same amount of electricity. Heaters, for all intents and purposes are perfectly efficient devices (actually, 100% inneficient). That 500w heater will take 5 seconds to raise the surrounding water to 80 degrees, while it takes the 250w 10s to do the same thing. Same amount of electricity. Its conservation of energy at work here.
That being said, I do think 2 smaller heaters is a great idea. Its a safeguard in the chance that one sticks on. It DOES NOT save you electricity though.
And yeah MJ-900 mods are by far the cheapest, most energy efficient way to get flow through out a tank. Makes you wonder why the price of Tunze and the new Vortechs have gone up, rather than down to meet the 'competition' of the modders.
They have gone up because there is no competition. People are still out there yelling "you get what you pay for" to justify the fact that they spent $150 for what should be a $30 powerhead. People are still willing to pay for tunzes. Its a niche market where people are convinced its a quality product. I can see some people being willing to pay for the controllability aspect, but the non controllable ones are just silly.
I have a Tunze 6060 in my tank, I got it used for $75. Sitting right next to it is a maximod. The maximod is half (to a quarter) of the size, uses less electricity, has a bigger spread, moves about the same amount of water, and cost about $20 all told.
I reef on a limited budget, and the maximods mean I can spend that money on things that would help my reef more. I can spend money, but I can't waste money. If that money would be better off used elsewhere, it gets used elsewhere. I could run 2 Tunze 6060s for $250, or run 2 maximods, get the same effect, and have an extra $210 to start saving for a Ca reactor.
