Aquarium pros

[Soccerman06]

Whats a good water heater with variable temp settings, good for 10-30 gal tank. The one I have now does fine, but only right after plugging it in, once the thermostat in it gets to 75 (it lets the temps drop below 70 over the night, it needs to stay at 78), the thing turns off and wont turn on until its plugged in again. Shitty ass thing from Walmart! Im heading to a aquatic store tomorrow hopefully they with have a better setup. Either that or Ill need to order online.

 

[Aquaman]

What size is your heater and how big is your tank?

Cheers,
Aquaman

 

[Howard]

Hydor inline water heaters are great

 

[fustercluck]

Sounds like Aquaman would be the guy to talk to

 

[Rubycon]

Ebo-Jager is probably the best submersible heater. 50-100W should be plenty for a tank that size unless it gets really cold in your room.

 

[Soccerman06]

I have a 10 and a 30, the current ones I use are the shitty wally mart ones that are rated for 10-30 gal. Oh Ill add, this place gets very cold in the winter because the heater here sucks, so I need something in the range of 100W+ for the 30gal

 

[Aquaman]

I use Marineland Visitherm heats. They lasted me for over 20 years of constant use.

Ebo's are great heaters also.

Cheers,
Aquaman

 

[BoomerD]

Ebo-Jager is probably the best submersible heater. 50-100W should be plenty for a tank that size unless it gets really cold in your room.

IIRC, Ebo-Jager is no more. I don't remember all the details, but I think Eheim took over building the Jager heater line a few years back. (Ebo built the Jager heaters for decades)

Since they're now all made in China, quality has gone in the crapper for all brands. Ruby is right...Ebo-Jager heaters were the best you could buy for many years. I still have a couple of 100w and 200w Ebo-Jager heaters that were built in the late 80's and early 90's that work as well today as they did when they were made...

I used Marineland's Visi-Therm line for many years, but they've also gone downhill badly.

IMO, stay away from the titanium heaters. The build qualiity on those was horrible when I got out of the hobby a few years back.

If I were buying a heater for a 30 gallon tank, I think I'd still look at the Marineland Visi-Therm line...and maybe the Marineland Stealth line.

Hydor MIGHT have gotten better since I got out of the hobby. They used to be pretty unreliable.

 

[Doodoo]

Boomer is right, the Ebo-Jager heaters have gone way downhill in quality. I use to run the Marineland Stealth, but now have a Hydor inline for my canister.

 

[Rubycon]

What isn't made in China any more?

 

[her209]

I use Marineland Visitherm heats. They lasted me for over 20 years of constant use.

Ebo's are great heaters also.

Cheers,
Aquaman

According to some folks on MonsterFishKeepers.com, their Marineland heaters have been exploding underwater, and blowing out their tanks in the process.

 

[Rubycon]

How does a heater that stays submerged explode?

If they leak that's pretty bad. If they are on a GFCI it will trip. Most curators of marine aquaria don't like GFCI for the reason of false trips. Leakage currents in tanks housing sharks are extremely bad too.

Since we drifted a little OT...

You want to see something neat?

Get a high wattage visitherm (300W) and set it all the way up and plug it in. (high and dry)

It will run until the tubes surrounding the nichrome wires are glowing cherry red. The jacket is probably 1000F at this point. Unplug the heater, step back and splash it with cold tap water. A shotgun blast type report immediately follows. That will scare you if you forget to unplug a heater while doing a partial water change. (unless you're the type that puts the heater on the bottom)

 

[her209]

How does a heater that stays submerged explode?

Dunno, but its happened to multiple people.
http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=355816

 

[MWink]

I did some research on heaters a couple years ago and it sounded like the Marineland Visi-Therm Deluxe's (NOT Stealth) were a good choice. I've used about 5 of them since then and all but 1 worked well. I did have one that didn't shut off like it should and they were great about replacing it (IIRC I didn't even have to deal with an RMA #). Remember when they fail they usually stick ON and cook the tank if not caught in time (luckily I caught it fast enough). That's why it's considered a good idea to use 2 smaller heaters rather than 1 powerful one.

Anyway I still think the Visi-Therm Deluxe's are pretty good economical heaters. I'd love to try the newer Fluval E series heaters but they're just too expensive. BTW, the Visi-Therm's are made in Italy.

 

[BoomerD]

I did some research on heaters a couple years ago and it sounded like the Marineland Visi-Therm Deluxe's (NOT Stealth) were a good choice. I've used about 5 of them since then and all but 1 worked well. I did have one that didn't shut off like it should and they were great about replacing it (IIRC I didn't even have to deal with an RMA #). Remember when they fail they usually stick ON and cook the tank if not caught in time (luckily I caught it fast enough). That's why it's considered a good idea to use 2 smaller heaters rather than 1 powerful one.

Anyway I still think the Visi-Therm Deluxe's are pretty good economical heaters. I'd love to try the newer Fluval E series heaters but they're just too expensive. BTW, the Visi-Therm's are made in Italy.

Here's a fairly easy-to-build heater protection device:

http://www.seabay.org/articles/HTH/building.htm

 

[Soccerman06]

So what I get from this, everyone hates every other brand because of their craftsmanship, swell.

 

[Wyndru]

According to some folks on MonsterFishKeepers.com, their Marineland heaters have been exploding underwater, and blowing out their tanks in the process.

I had a marineland one that cracked in half, and the bottom glass part fell into the rocks. It tripped the circuit though. The coils were completely exposed when I noticed it. The fish all survived thankfully .

 

[Rubycon]

So what I get from this, everyone hates every other brand because of their craftsmanship, swell.

Apparently these suffer from the "they don't build 'em like they used to" syndrome as well.

 

[Soccerman06]

Ok, so my choices in my area are:

fluval e series
fluval m series
aqueon
marineland stealth
petco brand (lol?)

Which to get?

Question, how hard is it to build your own aquarium out of glass/acrylic (mounted to a wall maybe)?