why do I have such problems with heaters in my aqua pod?

[saltyESQ]

for some reason, no matter what heater I put in the back of the tank I have to set the heater to 70 degrees or else th heater stays on and will boil my fish and corals.

Even though I have used 2 different therm's and they both have the same readings.
the heaters never shut off at the correct temp.

are there any special heaters desined for small tanks. as I bet it would work perfectly fine in my 90g. There just seems to be something with the small confined space in the back of the tank

any ideas?

 

[flameangel88]

I've the Thermal Compact 150W 12.5" Heater A714 (Hagen) in my AP 24g set at 75 and the temp is 76.4 with lights off and 77.2 with the 175W MH on.

What's the wattage of your heater? My is rated for upto 50gal and I probably should have the 100W for upto 35gal.

 

[laramieh]

True Thermocouple?

True Thermocouple?

I too have had the same problem. I tried 4 different heaters before I found the visi-therm stealth. It is the only heater I've tried that has maintained the temperature consistently within 1 degree of the setting. 2 Rena-Cal Toplights I've had are horrible. They seem to just cycle on and off depending on where you set the dial as opposed to actually measuring the water temperature. With no heater my tank is 80F during the day and drops to 76F at night. I wanted to eliminate the temp. shift but with the rena cal set to 68F my tank would go to 83F in the day and ~78 at night so it made no sense.

 

[saltyESQ]

thanks laramieh for the advice, I just purchased a visi-therm stealth on ebay. (crossing fingers that it resolves the problem)

 

[ZoeReef]

http://www.marinedepot.com/md_viewItem.asp?idproduct=WB1117

This is a great heater. It has no glass to break. It has a separate temp probe. I keep the heater in the sump, the temp probe in the tank and it works flawlessly. If you wanted to spend just a bit more for the digital readout, that would be money well worth spending IMO. It makes it easier to read, and since you will check temp every day, easy is everything.

 

[impur]

Look into getting a temp controller. That is really the only way to be sure the heater is keeping correct heat. Most of the heaters on the market now have pretty crappy thermostats in them. Ranco temp controllers get real good reviews.

 

[Newreeflady]

I also like the Visi-therm Stealth and use it in my NC12. I have a Rena-Cal for my water change water, it isn't terribly accurate.

-A