Heater recommendation

PaperclipGirl

Looking for any recommendations of heaters for a 55g planted tank.

DKRST

Personally, after having both, I prefer the black submersible heaters to other brands such as Eheim, due to appearance.

I have an aqueon(?) I think that's black in color and the LED indicates green when @ temp, red when heating. The adjustment is not finicky like some heaters, although you can't "calibrate" the setting scale like the Eheim heaters (that never worked particularly well for me anyway). I find the Eheims rather large for their wattage.

I also like to use two lower-wattage heaters, rather than one. I install one at each end (more or less). If one fails in the heating mode, it won't have enough wattage to fry the fish. Also, if one fails, the temp won't get too out of line before I'd notice.

Wattage range, I use 200 watts total, but that depends on how cold you keep your house in winter and your tank temp. There is a formula for watts/gallon based on the surrounding air temp and tank temp. Search around the forum and I bet you can find it.

AbbeysDad

+1 for the Aqueon heaters, in addition to what DKRST said, they are aluminum, making them more durable than glass heaters. For a 55g, you want a 200 watt heater to ensure a stable tank temperature of 15 Deg. F above room temperature. I have yet to add an addition heater, but plan to do so in the future.

MetalArm3

What about inline heaters attached to canisters?

DKRST

Byron has a heater built into his canister, I believe, and he seems to rally like it, judging by his posts that reference it. I don't know about any specific in-line systems myself, so can't say yea or nay. Seems like a good idea to reduce tank clutter but I don't like anything that adds another possible failure / leak point to my canister! Call me paranoid, but my tank's also on the 2nd floor of my house....

kitten_penang

i feel weird sometimes while reading post on heaters as we need chillers in ours i know it's because were in different countries but it still ...

AbbeysDad

You shouldn't need a chiller for tropical fish in a home. If anything, it sounds more like you need climate control in your home. We just had a heat wave that prompted me to finally invest in an air conditioner. Now my entire downstairs is sooo nice and cool and no worries that the tank waters will get overheated

Again, I'm with DKRST - Even if kits are available, I wouldn't retrofit a canister with a heater. Now if a canister came with a heater built in (as I think Byron's did), that's a different story.

kitten_penang

well i live in a country where it's shinny and humid most of the year.room temp is around 30degrees and higher.i need a chiller in the tank to bring down the temp to 24 degrees so the plants wont melt.i have 4 air conditioners in my 3 bedroom condo.were not always at home it's not energy efficient to run the aircons 24 hours a day coz it has to cool the whole room when no one's in it.chillers run 24 hours non stop.

DKRST

I have an aquarium chiller at work for a research project. It's simply an air conditioner (technically a water conditioner, I suppose) for the fish tank! It's certainly going to be more efficient than cooling an entire house just to keep the fish tank in the target range. Similar to the sizing of a tank heater, the chiller should not be oversized for a tank - could "chill" the fish in the event of a thermostat failure. For my research, the chiller system has two temperature-dependent cut-offs in case of failure of one.

Back to topic - any other feedback on tank heaters for PaperclipGirl?

Another recommendation, don't go for a cheap heater, it's not worth the risk.

MetalArm3

I do agree it adds to another leak point. The kind I was talking about is . My tank is also on the second floor, and DO NOT want fish water being absorbed into the carpet! You mention you just went through a heat wave? So what US State you located in? I know most of the Midwest just went through a heat wave (I'm from Il, and damn did that heat feel good)