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Dual Heaters

Tommyboynj

Administrator
Officer Emeritus
I want to get away from running my single 300w finnex titanium tube heater. I've got no redundancy. Would 2 150w jagers do the job? I'm more concerned if one goes down will the other one keep up. I'm about 100 gallons total water volume. Maybe 200s instead. There going to have to go I'm my overflow as they things are bigger than my finnex and sump space is limited.
 
I prefer doing heaters in 3s, so IMO three 100 watts if you keep your tank around 76. If one burnt out the other two should keep it above 72 until the bad one's replaced.
 

magic

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
I have 2 300 watt heaters. The second one is set 2 degrees lower then the primary.

Bob
 

redfishbluefish

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
Jagers are the best!


Unfortunately they run a bit long to compensate for the added area needed because of the extra thick glass. I would have preferred Jagers in my tank but they didn’t fit into my sump. I have a 90 DT with a 40 sump and run two 300 watt heaters My second choice on heaters are Sera’s, and that is what I ended up using….two 300 watt Sera heaters. Check them out to see if they would fit into the sump.


One other point....I don't care what brand you use, eventually the heaters will fail....in one of two ways. One way is that they just crap out....dead heater. When you find this, you replace it with a new one. The second way they fail is to get stuck ON. If you don't run your heaters through some type of controller, you end up cooking your tank. So use a controller with whatever heaters you buy.
 
For the last four years we've been running heaters that we get straight from China. They are about $8 including shipping for each, off Ebay, regardless of wattage up to 300 watts. They are glass bodies and submersible. Despite being submersible, we keep the tops with the thermostat sticking about 2 inches out of the water as experts recommend - being that the seals can eventually fail. - and keep them in the sumps and fuges. We haven't lost one of these heaters yet
 
I'm with Paul on the Jager's, so I went with the Hydor THEO. These units need to be fully submerged, or they will shut themselves off. I replace mine every couple years. As mentioned, don't trust the internal thermostats in any heater, turn the heater knob so it's a little higher than the temperature you want, and use a decent controller to regulate the temperature.
 
My heaters are off unless the temperature drops below a certain point. The Neptune then powers them on to gain the right temp and powers them off if it exceeds a certain temp. I don't trust heaters at all. I have one for my water change that is set to 74 but make water 80 degrees.
 

Tommyboynj

Administrator
Officer Emeritus
My heaters are off unless the temperature drops below a certain point. The Neptune then powers them on to gain the right temp and powers them off if it exceeds a certain temp. I don't trust heaters at all. I have one for my water change that is set to 74 but make water 80 degrees.

Yep. I got a few like that in the garage. Thanks for the imput guys.

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