Heater Sizing

[Aquattro]

What does everyone use in larger tanks for heaters (wattage)? I have 2 x 200w and with the heat turned off in the house, the tank dropped to 72 over night. Clearly, my heaters aren't cutting it :)

[Craigdillman]

i got 2 250w in my set up probably 160ish gallons total

[Aquattro]

i got 2 250w in my set up probably 160ish gallons total

I would have thought that was enough. Maybe mine are just so old they don't heat anymore. Guess I can test. Tank is back up to 73.3 currently :)

[brotherd]

1000 watt Bluline titanium with controller.

[Doug]

Wow Brad. 400w should easily keep your 180 at a set temp. And to boot you have a top. Must be a heater not doing its job.

[gregzz4]

I like to stick with 3-5 watts/gallon
I have 3 x 200w in 110 gallons total
If 1 fails, 2 can still keep up

[Aquattro]

Wow Brad. 400w should easily keep your 180 at a set temp. And to boot you have a top. Must be a heater not doing its job.

Well, the kid turned the heat off, so it was pretty cold in that room overnight. But ya, I would have thought they'd keep it at temp. Maybe time to replace heaters -lol
Oh, and no top, just open.

[seasalt_newbies]

I have a 500w titanium with controller on my 270G systemand it works amazing. I have it set and it fluctuates maybe 0.2 deg in a day. Great investment. No worries about heat anymore.

Mike

[MitchM]

I'm pretty happy with my hot water pex loop heating my tank.
I can't really say how many watts I would otherwise be using though.

[jorjef]

120 gallons 2 x300 watts.

[kacairns]

Different heater brands list different tank sizes based on wattage, guess it all boils down to efficiency and design/placement as well.

ie Aqueon 250w Pro heater is rated for aquariums upto 90g, where as Eheim Jager at 250w is rated for 106g - 159g

[Craigdillman]

I think I'm going to get in the habit of changing heaters every year they pretty cheap and for how important they are probnalu worth it

I keep my tank at 81 degrees and my room temp is 21 Celsius both controled by reef keeper they seem to do the job

[hillegom]

my understanding is that you have to take the ambient room temp into consideration. Once you have the proper heaters for the size of aquarium, the heaters only increase the tank water, 10-15 degs above the ambient room temp.

I found a chart on line. Scroll down to bottom of page, under ambient temperature.

http://mayerspet.com/?p=1010

[craigwmiller]

I have 4x 200w Jager's on 300 net gallons. (415 gross gallons just counting tank glass sizes)

I have set 2 heaters each on 2 temp probes. The system stays stable with 3 heaters but not much margin for failure. I figure with 4 smaller heaters one can fail ON or OFF and not cause me any grief.

[gregzz4]

That chart puts me right where I want to be with wiggle room
Ambient is 74 and tank is 79, so my third heater is a failsafe

I've always run closer to 5 rather than 3 watts/g

[Aquattro]

Does the chart take into account the dumbass coefficient??

Anyone ever recall reading about my chiller being plumbed outside. With PVC. Outside? Mhmmm.

[hillegom]

Are you able to take that offline easily and drain the pipes?

[Aquattro]

Are you able to take that offline easily and drain the pipes?

No, I'll just have to wrap the pipes.

[Ram3500]

http://i1343.photobucket.com/albums/o794/groundhogdog/28EB689D-BE97-41C4-AFE6-B1CF94BAD146-3614-00000172FC4872F7_zpsb779d99a.jpg (http://s1343.photobucket.com/user/groundhogdog/media/28EB689D-BE97-41C4-AFE6-B1CF94BAD146-3614-00000172FC4872F7_zpsb779d99a.jpg.html)

I have one Aqueon Pro Aquarium Heater (250 Watt) rated for 90 gallons my total system is about 190 gallons.I have it set to turn on at 78 to slow down the heat loss. One advantage to 800 watts of Metal Halide lighting it will keep your tank warm during the winter. I have two 150w that turn on at 11:00 and two 250w that turn on at 1:30 as soon as the temp hits 80 the apex turns on the fans. I only have to run the chiller in the summer . My temp fluctuation is between 78-80 each day. I know some people will say that to much but the corals seem happy.

[RDNanoGuy]

I use 2 x 250 watt Jagers on my 165g . Plus I have an old 125 watt stealth in my 55g refugium.

[mrhasan]

1 200w jager on my 70. No overheating issue and keeps the tank at 78.3-78.5.

[Simons]

I have 2x500 W titanium heater on my 250gal no issues keeping my tank in the 25c range overnight. My Nest house thermostat is programmed to drop the temp to 19c during the night. No issues keeping my tank in the basement toasty.

[BlueTang<3]

I got 600 gallons of water now, before we were running 3 500w heaters and they ran all the time. House was at 18 Sump is covered tank enclosed in canopy. In the winter we turn the heat up to 22 in the house now and the heaters hardly run keep the tank at about 25