# Happy Heater day



## Barbara Turner (25 Dec 2019)

Just having an expensive heater day, noticed that the tank  water was a little electrifying. When I investigated further both my external heaters are fried.

Im now using my old internal heater.. That glows orange at the end. Definitely time for a new heater.

Has anyone tried the ista external heater, as you can imagine I'm a little reluctant to buy any more hydor heaters.

Does anyone know what power you need for 300litre tank?


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## Millns84 (25 Dec 2019)

Never used external heaters but Finest Filters sell the Boyu units


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## Geoffrey Rea (25 Dec 2019)

If you’re feeling flush D-D temp controller and a titanium Schego heater 

Internal.... any filter with a heater does the trick but especially been impressed with the faultless service of the Eheim range with built in heaters.


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## Dadofthree (25 Dec 2019)

In my experience 2x150w cover your back plus.id use a.temp controller


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## Matt @ ScapeEasy (25 Dec 2019)

Agreed on 300w total JBL are just coming out with a new one if you can wait...


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## Barbara Turner (25 Dec 2019)

Is this it? 
Aquasabi have the 500w version in stock JBL ProTemp e

I definitely want to stick with external, my glass pipe work is hidden in the corner and everything else is external so it reasonably clutter free.   Are people using the ink bird temp controllers?


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## alto (25 Dec 2019)

500w for 300l tank, but really how much water?
Assume the worst case scenario - where these online heaters are stuck ON (much more frequently than standard in tank heaters - and a reason why several companies discontinued production/sale of these types of heaters) 
- how long will it take for that 500w heater to overheat the water? And how hot will that be?

A 300w heater would be a much more conservative choice
I’d choose a 200w heater for that tank size (re actual water volume)


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## Barbara Turner (25 Dec 2019)

If I go for the the new JBL  my preference  would be the 300w smaller version.. If I can find anyone with stock.

I'm just not sure how long my internal heater is going to last, as it glows orange at the end. 

If I run an additional temp controller there is less likely of over heating.  One set to 23 second set at 25. 

All the heaters I've had fail have always left the tank cold. 
It's a 350 litre tank, if empty and filled to the brim.


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## Matt @ ScapeEasy (26 Dec 2019)

Barbara Turner said:


> Is this it?


Yes, that's the one!


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## Andrew Butler (26 Dec 2019)

Geoffrey Rea said:


> If you’re feeling flush D-D temp controller and a titanium Schego heater


+1 here; Titanium are far more reliable than anything else and will most likely be hidden by plants anyway. Just remember a 'quality' Titanium heater has no built in control so either like the D-D controller or the Elitech range which I use are tried, tested and favoured throughout the Marine world. Elitech have them on sale at the moment for £15.99 with free shipping and use the code 'EXTRA5' for an extra 5% off (as of today 26/12/19) - I've been more than happy paying £19.99 from Amazon as they're ready to go.
https://www.elitechonline.co.uk/Temperature-Controller/ATC-1550



Barbara Turner said:


> If I can find anyone with stock.


JBL says release date is 2/1/20 - whether that's English or American, I don't know. (2nd January/1st February)
http://www.jbl.de/en/products/detail/8742/jbl-protemp-e300


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## Millns84 (26 Dec 2019)

Call me synical but that JBL heater looks a lot like the Sunsun unit. 

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https://www.ebay.co.uk/ulk/itm/192401382637


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## jolt100 (27 Dec 2019)

I had a new Hydor 300w fail after 1 month, fortunately in the off position,  and the replacement also failed within a few weeks. 
I don't know if they have changed something because I have had one running for six years without a problem. 
I finished up trying the sunsun and its been great.  Only issue was its got a US plug, but they supplied an adapter so I didn't have to find one.


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## Ed Wiser (27 Dec 2019)

I wouldn’t doubt the JBL is a sunsun.


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## Barbara Turner (28 Dec 2019)

Sunsun with a quality inspector from JBL in the factory, or that's how we operated in China with power tools.

I've ordered a JBL heater, should be here in a couple of days. I'll post some photos online. 

I'll order a secondary controller ASAP, has anyone tried the STC-1000 Digital Temperature. It's 1/3 of the price of the Atc-1550. 
It needs a case, I also quite like the idea of mounting the controller in the door of my cabinet.


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## Andrew Butler (28 Dec 2019)

Barbara Turner said:


> has anyone tried the STC-1000 Digital Temperature


I'm quite sure that's the model I used on my marine as nothing like the ready made units existed then so was a case of wiring them up yourself which worked quite well as I ran 2x heaters and no need for the cooling. There's the expense of sourcing the socket and case witch which makes ATC-1550 option so appealing for the money.
With my ATC-1550 I opened it up, drilled a few holes, turned everything else upside down which allowed me to screw the case upside down to the top of my cabinet (inside)

They're all pretty much work the same, just make sure it fits temperature scale you are looking at and heating to cooling switch is minimal.



Barbara Turner said:


> I also quite like the idea of mounting the controller in the door of my cabinet


Unsure quite how you would do this if you're still going to open/close the door?


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## Barbara Turner (28 Dec 2019)

Andrew Butler said:


> Unsure quite how you would do this if you're still going to open/close the door?





 

 

Normally you have an isolator so you can't open the door without turning everything off.  Alternative is to double insulate everything live, Cables need two layers of insulation and some protection against rubbing on the hinge.


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## Aqua sobriquet (28 Dec 2019)

I’m using an under tank heater on my Nano at the moment.

https://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads/aquarium-heater-mystery.57501/#post-581609

As mentioned I ran a 50 gallon tank with one many years ago.


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## Andrew Butler (30 Dec 2019)

Barbara Turner said:


> I also quite like the idea of mounting the controller in the door of my cabinet





Barbara Turner said:


> Normally you have an isolator so you can't open the door without turning everything off


Ah; you don't mean your aquarium stand/cabinet then?


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