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heater size


banaro

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Hey all just wondering if anyone can tell me what reena heaters are like?.I have a 350l 5 ft going to be my cichlid set up was wondering if 2 300w heaters where anygood as the lps have a couple cheaper than via aqua but unsure if 2 300ws on the 350l are too big and if the brand is any good any help would be great cheers Geremy

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The general guide I use for choosing the appropriate heater for my aquarium is to have 1.5 watts for every litre of water i.e. for a 100 litre tank you need a 150 watt heater.

I too am not sure about the brand name you are talking about, but IMO put a 300w at each end of your tank maybe

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Can't be too much, they're thermostat controlled.

Only reason you dont want too much really is in case the thermo fails and it gets stuck on. I've got a 300W heater here running a 30L baby apisto tank, keeps the temp within .2 degrees and its a $19 Masterpet (THE worst heater ever)

2 x 300W in a 350L will be fine, if you had the choice 2 x 200 would give you extended time in the case of thermostat failure, but if the 300's are going cheap I'd grab those instead. Your call though, some people spend $80 on a single Jager.

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They're non-submersible e.g. the seals will slowly leak water unless you keep the top section out of the water. You also can't disassemble them to remove the water inside without breaking the mechanism.

For the price they're not bad, but I'd rather spend the extra $5-10 for an AquaOne or an Elite (my new favourite).

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I used to buy nearly all rena gear 25 years ago and still have heaters going. I have a light timer/ feeder on one tank that is still operating well (it turns off the air pump for 5 mins when it feeds). I understand it became hard to get parts so they stopped importing them. In my view good quality stuff.

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I use 2 x 300W in my 1200L tank... Never had any problems with it being too cold. I'd be very worried about cooked fish if either one of your heaters gets stuck on. If one of my heaters gets stuck on it will only raise the tank temp by about 2'C a day so I'll have time to catch it. In a tank the size of yours, it will likely be all over before you notice... You would likely be much better off with 2 x 100W or maybe 2 x 150W.

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Im not sure if a 300W will be very efficient at heating a 580L. If you have very good flow and the outlets faced to the heaters sensor then it may be ok but you may find it on alot *shrugs* I guess at least your overheating problem would be minimised but if it failed on then you would find the tank would get cold quickly.

In my O tank ive got two stainless heaters and split the wattage, already had one fail on and was thankful for the second as a backup :lol:

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Yeah I always go with the theory that two smaller heaters are better than one big one, for the reasons already mentioned. Also, when calculating the watts-by-volume, remember that it depends on the ambient temperature of the room as well.

People in North America (USA and Canada) have permanent heating in their houses so they can get away with relatively low wattage heaters. In NZ our houses usually aren't heated all day and overnight, so you might need more wattage to keep the water up to temp, especially during the early hours of the morning.

Each case is different, so if you're living in an unheated, uninsulated house in the South Island you're going to need more wattage than if you're living in a centrally heated apartment in Auckland (waddarya, soft or something?! :lol: )

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i am most likely totally wrong because i suck at maths but doesnt it work on how long its on for?

Say you are heating a 1000L with a 300w heater and its on 24/7 that means its using 7,200W per day (300w/hr). Now if you were using 500W worth of heating and they were only on for 12hrs a day (cause its more wattage and heats water quicker) it would use 6000W per day?

*note, this isnt to scale.

probably doesnt matter all that much i guess, depends on what your paying for power and so on *shrugs*

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Basically if it's on 24/7 using 7200Wh of energy then that's what it takes to keep the tank warm. Using a 500W heater doesn't mean it will use less power.

If it needs 7200Wh for example, the 500W heater will not be on for 12 hours, it will be on for 14 hours and 24 minutes. Joules are joules and you can't use less without the tank temp dropping.

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