Heaters

[mitch]

What is best a glass heater or a stainless steel one with a controlled external thermostat $20 for one $40 for the other.....and if the stainless one is better do i still need a thermo or a aqua minder?

[Discusguru]

I prefer the Fluval Tronic glass one cos they are reliable and accurate.

They cost more than $40.00 retail.

Ronnie

[evil_elmo]

had an old Fluval Tronic, it jammed on and made fish soup, now i've using a Ehiem Jager and its the best heater i owned

[suphew]

I have found the fluval tronic's to be fine but no heaters seem to be 100% fool proof. I use an external temp controller now with cheap heaters turned up to full and have never looked back. However my temp controller cost over a hundred $ and turns on fan/chiller as well so I don't know what the cheaper ones are like.

[whetu]

As far as I know the only advantage to a metal heater is that they can't shatter as easily as the glass ones. The only time I've heard of a heater shattering is when

a) you take it out of the water when it's on, then put it back in the water and the thermal shock breaks it... or

b) you drop, whack or thump it.

So the answer is easy... treat the heater with a bit of respect!

Apart from shattering, it seems the weak link in the heater chain is usually the thermostat. If they get stuck 'on' you end up with 'fish soup' (nice phrase, bad result!) If they get stuck 'off' your poor wee darlings get hypothermia.

My personal answer: Instead of one big heater, use two smaller ones in each tank. If one thermostat fails you have a much bigger window of opportunity to notice and fix the problem before there are any fish deaths.

Also have an accurate thermometer (in a place that's easy to see) and get in the habit of glancing at it every time you're near the tank.

[mitch]

I can get a glass one that is standed. for $20..or this seel one with controlled external thermostat for $40.....i guess im asking about the external control is it a better one?....it is 150w the tank is 130ltr as the tank is a Aqua and the stainless heater is too, would make it better also?

[Discusguru]

To pick between the two, i'll go for the $40 heater.

ron

[Dark]

it all seems about the same from my experience:

the heaters that use a bi-metal strip for temperature reading tend to end up rusting and are not often accurate

the electronic thermostat variety are often callibrated badly when you get them

the ones with the external control system are probably about the same for accuracy, and they all break down after about 10 years

the good thing about the electronic thermostat ones is the lack of moving parts - no click when they switch on and less parts inside to rust once condensation gets inside

the stainless ones have external thermostats because the walls of the heater part are too thick and too heat conductive for accurate temperature measurement. the advantage to these is that large fish can't break them as easily as glass ones - even heater guards can be broken by large fish

personally i would not use the heaters with the bi-metal strip again - i have bad luck with all heaters getting condensation inside them and the bi-metal strip rusts quite quickly. the last straw was a 300w heater that got jammed on and cooked a tank.

the electrically controlled ones have some form of safe-guard to turn them off if they are on for too long and fail in an 'off position' (according to the advertising material...)

oh, and the stainless ones have electronic control systems you'll be pleased to know

10 cents>

[Faran]

i prefer stainless for the ease of use. Hate sticking my hands in tanks to adjust temps, with the external controller you know exactly what it's set at and make adjustments instantly. On/off light is clear and easy to read.too. Have managed to switch to stainless steel heaters in most of my tanks and have only had one tank on me but it was quite a few years old.