welcome to winter...heater question

[ryeguyy84]

I'm wondering if my heater is undersized for my tank. I have a 60G cube with a 10G sump and 5G refugium so figure 50 - 60 actual gallons of water. I have a 300W heater and keep my tank at 78.9 degrees. my Apex is set to turn the heater on at 78 and raise it to 78.9. my house temp goes down to 65 at night and during that time the heater goes on for an hour and then is off for an hour and repeats. during the day it's about a half hour because the house is at 71.

should it take the heater an hour to go up one degree?

my tank setup is:
Lights: Single Radion at 85% max
return pump: Eheim Compact 2000
Skimmer: R/O NWB-110
power heads: (2) Vortech MP-10's
Heater: Marineland 300W

 

[Vapour1ze]

Yes. Absolutely.

I have 2x 300watt heaters in my system... About 110 gallons total volume. My temp swings on my Apex go between 77-79... During summer it takes about 2 hours to heat up, and 4 to cool down to the 77. In winter, it takes about 3-4 hours for it to heat up to 79 from 77, and an hour or two to cool down..


Completely fine... And good that it is gradual. You do not want super quick temp swings as it could stress things out. Gradual swings are fine. It will also make corals accept more of a fluctuation instead of knowing it is going to get 78.9 constantly.

Also, you need two heaters... Why do you have one? You realize if that heater goes out you're done for. Get two, and run them both. Heaters fail often. You don't have to necessarily run both if you don't want to. Since you have an apex you could tell the second one to turn on if the temp gets .5 degrees lower than the lowest temp on your current heater... Or run both, on two different outlets, or same doesn't matter)

Redundancy is key in this hobby.

Cheers!

 

[ryeguyy84]

Thanks, I do have a spare small heater (I think it's a 150W) heater and an open outlet. I like that idea, I'll put it to use tonight.

Thanks Again!

 

[Vapour1ze]

Thanks, I do have a spare small heater (I think it's a 150W) heater and an open outlet. I like that idea, I'll put it to use tonight.

Thanks Again!

No problem, very glad to help... And glad you are going to take advantage of that extra outlet.

Very good decision!

 

[ryeguyy84]

it was either that or have an exhaust fan for my stand. now I might just run the exhaust fan while something else is on. I'm thinking i'll just hook into the skimmer outlet for that.