# Hydor External Heater vs Schego Titanium



## Dieni (9 Jun 2019)

What would you choose from the above. I will be using an Inkbird ITC-306T controller or something similar. 

I would prefer to have the minimum equipment showing in the tank but my only concern is that in the past I had a Hydor external heater fail on me whilst on holiday, which almost wiped out all my fish, but a lot of people here use them without any problems. 

So any of you have had any issues with the Hydor?


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## zozo (9 Jun 2019)

I remember a lot of reports in the past about a bad hydor batch that burnet out the relay on the thermostat. Don't know if they addressed the issue by now.
But that is actualy always a risk with those tiny electronics, i've been using external thermostats for several years in several occasions. All the very same small relay a tad bigger than the one build in the hydor. But also had one among them that burned out this relay after a few years of use. While others switching even more watts still work like a charm today.

I guess it's bad luck with a relay made on a blue monday. 

I made a few myself following this idea it actualy works very good.. And you can choose a range of Wattage.


Also have been using an inline thermistor.. If the inkbird uses an NTC 10K this could be an option to put inline in front of the heater.
www.aliexpress.com/item/2pcs-NTC-1m-2m-3m-3-28ft-5-56ft-9-84ft-10K-Thermistor-Temperature-Measuring-Sensor/32790028043.html


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## Tim Harrison (9 Jun 2019)

I've used an inline Hydor for several years. It's pretty reliable. However, I've had to take it apart twice since it started leaking, but only after it hadn't been used for a while. Easy to fix tho'.
I'm amazed that they don't leak all the time, the seals are pretty haphazard in that they don't appear to be very tight. Either way I prefer inline since it's one less bit of kit in the tank...
Aesthetics is everything in aquascaping


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## Dieni (9 Jun 2019)

I had used mine for several years without problems, until it decided to keep on heating and kill most of the fish I had at the time. Only a couple of discus had survived, from that incident I decided to dismantle everything and have a break from the hobby. That was roughly 10 years ago.

So you can understand why I am a bit sceptical about using them again...


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## zozo (9 Jun 2019)

Than the problem most likely is the heater is over powered.. And that's my reason why  did not buy the hydor, Because the tank i wanted to use it for was to small for the 200 watt the lightest hydor has as default. On a 45 litre volume 200 watt is way to much.. Thus i DIYed me an 80 Watt inline and it barely does the job,  Have to set it on 28°C to get a 22°C tank temperature at a 15°C room temp. Even if it ever fails to shut off it doesn't have power enough to go to high in relation to the volume and turn over it needs to heat.

And still i use a external thermostat on all heaters i use, just as a fail safe and because they can be calibrated with the thermometer in use.

Thats alway a good thing to do.

For the rest, that's also the morbidety in our hobby we all need to learn to live with.. We stand and fall with the technical aspects at the aqaurium.. And if the power ever runs out we all are busted and the fish doomed to die. Relying on tech has a luck factor that sometimes runs out unfortunately.

But it indeed can be disheartening beeing unlucky.


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## Zeus. (9 Jun 2019)

I have two on my 500l litre over two years no problems.

Do you need a heater on the tank seeing your in Malta?


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## Dieni (10 Jun 2019)

zozo said:


> Than the problem most likely is the heater is over powered.. And that's my reason why did not buy the hydor, Because the tank i wanted to use it for was to small for the 200 watt the lightest hydor has as default. On a 45 litre volume 200 watt is way to much.



Tank was around 180l and the heater was a 200w version. So in theory it was just enough to heat it.



zozo said:


> I made a few myself following this idea it actualy works very good.. And you can choose a range of Wattage.



Does this diy heater enclosure effect flow etc, when compared maybe to a Hydor?



Zeus. said:


> Do you need a heater on the tank seeing your in Malta?



Well our homes are built to keep cool as much as possible, therefore in winter (Jan and Feb) we struggle to keep the heat in and room temps can go down to around 15°C.

This time I am between 2x 250w Schego or 2x 300w Hydor External. Tank is 5ft x 2ft x 2ft and will hold around 450l..


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## dw1305 (10 Jun 2019)

Hi all, 





Dieni said:


> This time I am between 2x 250w Schego or 2x 300w Hydor External. Tank is 5ft x 2ft x 2ft and will hold around 450l.


I've never had a Hydor heater, but if you wanted to go down the Schego route you could buy an off the shelf controller like an "Inkbird ITC 308 temperature controller".

I'm not too worried about the heater failing and not heating, I'm much more worried about the heater sticking on and cooking the fish before I can do anything about it. 

cheers Darrel


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## Andrew Butler (10 Jun 2019)

I used to really like the Hydor and agree it's one less thing in the aquarium but I've fallen out of love with them in favour of the Schego heaters.
Two of the Hydors I had failed on me after not much more than a year and I just got fed up so swapped back to Titanium.
They're a bit of an eyesore but so are lily pipes, skimmer etc so I favour reliability and vote Schego.

There's a really easy controller, used by the marine guys for years but this versions is wired up and ready to go in both UK and EU formation
https://smile.amazon.co.uk/Elitech-...teway&sprefix=elitech+atc,aps,127&sr=8-2&th=1

Just my opinion.


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## Dieni (10 Jun 2019)

Aargh, can't really decide, I have found the Hydors 300w locally for £35 and really like the idea of not having 2 heaters in the tank, but I am sure that the Schegos are more reliable. 

Maybe I will try my luck for one last time and go with the Hydors and if I see any issues swap them for Schegos. This time around, with the wattage split into 2 heaters, I shouldn't have any problems with cooking the fish... plus I will have the added benefit of the external thermostat. 

The Inkbird ITC-306T has 2 sockets to connect 2 heater directly, whilst the 308 has one for heating and one for cooling.


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## Barbara Turner (9 Aug 2019)

I use a hydor but when on holiday I add an extra external heater. 

Last year I went on holiday, my inlet tube blocked almost completely, I got back with the tank at 15 degrees..
Surprisingly everything survived.


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