safest sps tank heater
- Thread starter Rock126
- Start date
chrishayes
New member
This^ Ive had the ebo jeger old green ones before they were bought by eheim for AGES. Typically when a stand out product line gets bought by someone the products go down hill(maxijet) but jejger getting bought by eheim is like ferrari buying porche.
Just for the sake of argument, ive ran the marineland stealths on my planted tank and two in my reef at the same time for well over 4 years without issue. I run two smaller heaters instead of one though because its not if it fails its when so by having two you have a back up.
Whatever you choose make sure its plugged into a gfci and/or use a ground probe. 15$ each can save your ENTIRE tank one day. Ill be using both on my new setup.
mordibv
Active member
+2
Yep . RKL behind a gfci . No heater has a safety shut off that I know of . A controller provides that . It was the main reason I picked up the RKL .
HTH
Shiroi Kitsune
New member
Anything but Hydor Theos, had two go nuts about 3-4 months after hooking them up. Thank god for the big chiller on my SPS tank. Have an old Marineland visi-therm that I've been using off and on for like 13 years and has never failed me. Currently using a Via-Aqua Titanium and happy.
groundpound4200
New member
I heard from a sales rep at the LFS I used to work at the the Hydors pick up electrical interference from pumps in the sump which interferes with the operation of the thermostat. Apparently they work fine in a display tank away from other electrical stuff but I still wouldn't trust them after owning a few myself.
As for the controller, I spent a ton of money on an Aqua-Medic controller and a 500W titanium heater only to have the controller fail and take my SPS tank up to 90 degrees. I only trust Ebo Jagers now after that incident.
As for the controller, I spent a ton of money on an Aqua-Medic controller and a 500W titanium heater only to have the controller fail and take my SPS tank up to 90 degrees. I only trust Ebo Jagers now after that incident.
BradR
New member
You'll see many porsches taking abuse at race tracks but very few ferrari's. German over Italian any day!
I have a Jager heater that I got used with my first tank in 1995 and it is still dead nuts on for it's temp setting. These are all I will buy.
If you are still using these Stealth heaters you should read the sticky and all the "heater blows up" threads about those heaters.
LifeAquatic
New member
Eihem Jager hooked to a controller works great. Never any issues.
chrishayes
New member
Yep, my ebo's are from around 92-95, hell they were 25$ back THEN. Like almost triple the price of visatherms of the day but uhhhh I dont have any visatherms left...:hmm1: SO im sure the same still applys today. If you want to be talking in 15 years about the heater you bought TODAY then make the tiny extra investment now for an Eheim/jeger whatever they are now.
Also, everyone talking about controllers, OP asked what HEATER is the safest! I think in our tech savy world today, when it comes to a r$$f tank, it goes without saying that you should have an electronic maid taking care of these things:wavehand:
Oh and the stealth blowing up thing, I know they are reported to do that. Thats why I said for the sake of argument. No blowed up stealth for me or the other 98% of users out there that dont visit or participate in forums. Just sayin. Hell every heater ive ever had has failed catosrophically in one way or another aside from the original ebo's, so saying ones more of a death trap than another is kindof silly:headwallblue:
I was merely trying to make sure that you were aware of the issues if you did not already know about them.
Where did I say they were a death trap? And 98% that do not visit here...then how do you know they have not had problems. Also I do not think that marineland would recall the stealth heaters for only 2% of them failing. Nor would they allow people to take them in without a receipt and exchange them for a different brand. Not to mention but when these heaters fail they even will pay for livestock loss and tank replacement as needed.
chrishayes
New member
I wasnt reffering to your comment here. Only saying that the OP asked for what is the safest heater So, imo none of them. In one way or another they will fail and for the life of me I dont know how they get away with not integrating some form of protection...
THis is what ive seen IME
visatherm-EVERYONE of them have ended up either breaking from light impacts OR they all have shocked me sometimes both!
Stealth-honestly, havent had a single issue with these myself but ive only used 3 of them. As you point out they are known to crack open causing many problems.
aqueon-will not HOLD temp
Ebo original-Cant say that ive heard of any horror story with these...they stop working but not in a catostrophic way.
Ebo new gen-hear people like them but havent tried one myself. Still waiting on my stealths to explode so Marineland can pay for my new tank!:mixed: Thats a shot at you evsalty! Just messin with ya!
I do think thats cool that they are willing to stand behind a junk product though and I do disagree with you on a company recalling only 2%. Look at toyota and the majic self accelaerating cars awhile back. They only found like a handful of these cars(which I dont even think you can quantify that percentage) and it sparked a recall.
JG1
New member
I recently got a used finnex titanium heat tube. you need to use it with a controller, I use my ac jr to control it. no suction cups, you just lay it on the bottom of the sump. Premium Aquatics, Aquarium Specialty, BRS etc carries them.
The bad thing about that is god forbid your controller take a dump on ya, that heater will run nonstop. I like the safety factor of a heater that is adjustable. I use two 150w Jager's in my setup, run by an Apex controller. I keep the temp programmed at 78, but have it adjusted on the heater to turn off at 80ish just incase my controller fails me.
JG1
New member
I recently got a used finnex titanium heat tube. you need to use it with a controller, I use my ac jr to control it. no suction cups, you just lay it on the bottom of the sump. Premium Aquatics, Aquarium Specialty, BRS etc carries them.
I see it says safety auto shut off on the box. What does that mean? Is that incase it's out of water, or in the event of a controller malfunction?
I would agree that an ebo with an rkl is about as safe as you can get. The ebo has a pretty good t-stat and the rkl is also pretty reliable. So you have redundant control and really shouldn't have any problem with the "sticking on".
Of course the same thing happens with any heater that has a t-stat and another controller, ranco, rkl, etc.
On another note "sticking on" isn't the only issue that crops up with heaters. Look at the issues stealths have had with flat out exploding, and I have had a few stealths that leaked voltage. The ebos have a much more robust power cord and top on them, thus far I have been very pleased with the ebos. I wouldn't put a stealth in my tank EVER again, I didn't even send in my old ones for replacement, they are strictly used in the mixing tank.
Of course the same thing happens with any heater that has a t-stat and another controller, ranco, rkl, etc.
On another note "sticking on" isn't the only issue that crops up with heaters. Look at the issues stealths have had with flat out exploding, and I have had a few stealths that leaked voltage. The ebos have a much more robust power cord and top on them, thus far I have been very pleased with the ebos. I wouldn't put a stealth in my tank EVER again, I didn't even send in my old ones for replacement, they are strictly used in the mixing tank.
No prob I didn't think you were refering to me but since I made the only comment about those heaters well I just wanted to make sure lol
. You do realize that the Toyata thing was seen WORLD wide. They had no choice but to do a recall. They did not even want to acknowledge that there was an issue at first but when a POLICE officer looses his and his families lives, the gov't steps in and says AHHHUUMMMMM you need to do something about this.
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