# broke my heater :(  will fish be ok in the meantime?



## Stu Worrall (24 Nov 2008)

I managed to stupidly shatter my heater last night doing a water change when I pulled out the wrong plug and didnt turn it off.  Im looking at what to replace it with and may go with a hydor external instead of an internal and my questions are;

will my fish be ok with the colder water whch is currently sitting around 21 - 22 degrees (usually 25-26).  the tank is in a centrally heated lounge and the fish are Blue tetras and high spot rasporas.

Also I was planning on getting a tetratec ex1200 and currenly has a sera 900 which has 12mm tubing. has the tetra got the bugger 16mm?  (ie if I buy the 12mm hydor heater will it work on the ex 1200?)

thanks Stu


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## Graeme Edwards (24 Nov 2008)

Your fish should be fine Stue. Ive had my heater off for a week before now after forgetting to plug it back in. They where all fine. Just keep an eye on them. You can always add some warm water in the morning to get them through till the central heating kicks in, in the evening.

As for the tetratech, im not sure, some one els will help you with that one.


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## vauxhallmark (24 Nov 2008)

EX1200's tubing has internal diameter 15.2mm per teta's instruction manual here:

http://uk.tetra.de/tetra/go/9A74DE9F7E9 ... geLanguage

(they have awful urls)

Mark


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## George Farmer (24 Nov 2008)

Hi Stu

The Tetratec EX1200 has 16mm fittings.  You can get 16-12mm reducers.  Our sponsors, AE, sell them.  Not sure about TGM.

Hydor do ETH 200 and ETH 300 external inline heaters.  The 200 (200w) has 12mm fittings, the 300 (300w) has 16mm.

So if you want to use ETH 200 with the Tetatec 1200 you'll need the reducers.


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## Stu Worrall (24 Nov 2008)

thanks all, looks like its decision time as to whether to bite the bullet and get the filter and heater at the same time?

if i got the 200w and used reducers on the tetratec later would it impede the flow but going from 16mm to 12mm then back up to 16mm?


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## vauxhallmark (24 Nov 2008)

stuworrall said:
			
		

> thanks all, looks like its decision time as to whether to bite the bullet and get the filter and heater at the same time?
> 
> if i got the 200w and used reducers on the tetratec later would it impede the flow but going from 16mm to 12mm then back up to 16mm?



Yes, dramatically. if you go from 16mm to 12mm tubing, you're going from tubing with a cross section of 201mm squared to a cross section of 113 mm squared - almost a half as small.

You'll need someone with better maths and knowledge of fluid dynamics to tell you what effect this will have on the possible throughput, but common sense says that if you are reducing the cross section of a pipe to half of what it was then the throughput will be significantly reduced. Much as I admire Bernoulli this is beyond my range of knowledge.

Going down to 12mm tubing for part of the run means that the system will only run as well as it would with 12mm tubing all the way - if this wasn't the case then we'd all be putting a bit of 60mm tubing in our filter runs to increase the turnover! Again, the maths fails me, but it's got to be like the old saying "a chain is as strong as the weakest link". The narrowest point of the tubing will determine how much water can pass thorough it.

If you need the turnover from the EX1200 and also to use the hydor heater, either go for the 300w one, or use a separate pump to power the heater.

Good luck,

Mark


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## Stu Worrall (24 Nov 2008)

i did fluid dynamics in uni and didnt really understand it then either!  I think im going to get a cheapo heater then get a 300w hydor later on as I have just sourced an ex1200 from a kindly member on here which ill get next month   

One thing I was thinking of was that the sera 900 has a 16mm in line and a 12mm out.  The instructions for the hydor says to put it on the outlet as I guess it may break if I put it on the 16mm inlet and anything that was sucked in got stuck


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## a1Matt (24 Nov 2008)

I have a 160l tank so 200w Hydor is the recommended one for me.

So I ignored that and bought a EX1200 and Hydor 300 

They work a treat, no flow reducers needed and If I add cold water at water changes the 300w heats it up really quickly.   

I've also made the oops I left the heater unplugged for a week mistake with no signs of any problems.

I put my Hydor on the outlet as I know it is going to get filtered water passing through it.  I figured that if I put it on the inlet it may get gunked up quicker.

HTH


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## Garuf (24 Nov 2008)

George Farmer said:
			
		

> Hi Stu
> 
> The Tetratec EX1200 has 16mm fittings.  You can get 16-12mm reducers.  Our sponsors, AE, sell them.  Not sure about TGM.
> 
> ...



I got my reducers from AE but found them in the local fish shop for nearly half the price. 
I use the exact set up George mentions and I personally would go for the 300 as I'm finding that with the lillys and the heater the flow is quiet badly restricted.


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## GreenNeedle (24 Nov 2008)

According to someone on TFF both models are available with both measurements!!!

After me querying a 200W with 16mm fittings I was told that both the 200W & 300W models are made with bothe hose options!!!

May be worth investigating now.

AC


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## GreenNeedle (24 Nov 2008)

Quick look at the Hydor site and I can tell you that the 200W is available both as 12mm and 16mm but the 300W is only available in 16mm.  This is there options (copied from their site):

ETH 200W - 1/2
ETH 200W 5/8
ETH 300W - 5/8

AC


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## Dave Spencer (24 Nov 2008)

Stu, I`ll bring a 300W Hydor to the camera club tonight. You can use until you buy one.

Dave.


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## Ed Seeley (24 Nov 2008)

Just use the larger heater on the tank.  It will simply heat the water up more quickly and may cycle on and off more but will not heat the water above the temperature you set it at!  You can use much larger heaters on small tanks if need be.  I used a 150W heater on a 25l tank for a while during an emergency - it worked fine!


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## Stu Worrall (24 Nov 2008)

cheers all and thanks dave, you're a star. see you later


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