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Which in tank heater is the best

The issue with the external thermostat is also the external thermistor on a cable because this thing needs to be firmly secured in the water at all times.
Pulling it out accidently without notice during maintenance can result in a cooking tank, because it will measure outside the tank and keep on heating. Then if you want a fail safe it's still best to have a heater element with an internal thermostat anyway. If it happens for what ever reason, maybe it's not you but the cat pulling the thermistor out then it still will switch off in time.

I've been in this hobby for decades and can only speak for myself and must admit over the years it happend a few times that i forgot to unplug the heater during a water change. I guess i'm not the only sleepy head around who did this. It also once happened to me with a stainles steel heater, then also it keeps on (Over)heating and it did melt the seal. After i filled the tank with water again i felt a tingling sensation when sticking a finger in the water and touching ground. This stainless steel heater was leaking power and just not enough to blow the fuse. That was my first and last stainless steel heater, these things can be dangerous for sleepy heads when leaking water and electricity after overheating and melting the rubber seal and not showing the damage.

If this happens with a regular in tank glass heater and it overheats the glass will crack and the heater will be broken, blow the fuse and or burn out the heater element.

Personaly i would recomend an ordenairy old school glass in tank heater, simply to always be on the safe side... :) No idea about all available products in the UK, but brands like Sera, Dupla, Colombo, Eden etc. all have them all are standard and equaly good all the do is heat... I found the heaters from Eden pretty affordable and good quality...


www.aquatix-2u.co.uk

EDEN AQUARIUM HEATERS

Simple and easy to use Internal Aquarium Heater from Eden. Eden is a brand from the prestigious Oase manufacturing group, well known for premium pond products. It provides accurate water temperature readings thanks to its thermostat system that reacts only to the water temperature and not to the...
www.aquatix-2u.co.uk www.aquatix-2u.co.uk
 
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zozo said:
I've been in this hobby for decades and can only speak for myself and must admit over the years it happend a few times that i forgot to unplug the heater during a water change. I guess i'm not the only sleepy head around who did this. It also once happened to me with a stainles steel heater, then also it keeps on (Over)heating and it did melt the seal. After i filled the tank with water again i felt a tingling sensation when sticking a finger in the water and touching ground. This stainless steel heater was leaking power and just not enough to blow the fuse. That was my first and last stainless steel heater, these things can be dangerous for sleepy heads when leaking water and electricity after overheating and melting the rubber seal and not showing the damage.
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What you do there is place the heater on the same plug as your filter, yes either bodge two lots of wires into plug :)mad:) or use an adapter, so that when you turn the filter off to do a water change the heater gets turned off as well.

I am now using a JBL 200W heater (in 180l tank) for last couple of years. Works fine, stays stuck to rear of tank most of the time. Occasionally I take the plastic covering off and scrub with bleach water to kill any BBA growth.
 
ian_m said:
What you do there is place the heater on the same plug as your filter, yes either bodge two lots of wires into plug :)mad:) or use an adapter, so that when you turn the filter off to do a water change the heater gets turned off as well.
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Yup! That's the way, just one plug that unplugs everything electrical in the tank before you stick a finger in it. :)

I made the mistake of having switches in the cabinet and forgot the heater switch. Should have made a main switch for everything... :shy:
But still no more titanium or SS heaters for me...
 
I’d always recommend using an external controller too. All heaters will fail at some point and if they fail stuck on like I’ve had in the past it means game over for your livestock.
 
fredi said:
I use Eheim jäger, in combination with external controller, set the heater stat 2 degrees higher then desired, use the controller to maintain set temperature
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Which controller ?


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dean said:
Which controller ?


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Well
I have a ghl profilux2 (had it for many years), for the new tank I purchased a profilux 4 which was faulty out of the box, you wouldn’t believe the grief I have had getting it replaced
Currently speaking with the retailer about a refund or a Neptune system
 
fredi said:
Well
I have a ghl profilux2 (had it for many years), for the new tank I purchased a profilux 4 which was faulty out of the box, you wouldn’t believe the grief I have had getting it replaced
Currently speaking with the retailer about a refund or a Neptune system
Click to expand...
Sorted
I must say that I am extremely frustrated and dissatisfied with Ghl customer support
It’s basically, purchase and £800.00+ system, find it’s faulty out of the box, then pay to send it to Germany for repair
When I informed them that in this country, we have laws to protect consumers from unscrupulous manufacturers, I got no response
Fortunately the retailer (Charterhouse Aquatics) are replacing the ghl with a Neptune system
Should be with me tomorrow 🤞🤞🤞
 
Went to local shops and phones others most just stock the cheaper brands chinese stuff and in my experience they last 12 months and 1 day

The best i could get was Oase so i bought 2 250w wanted 2 150w but again they had none in stock

I wanted eheim jager but no stockist locally and none on amazon except 100w which isnt enough



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I think the oase Biomaster for pure
Convenience. I’ve broke too many heaters (glass ones) and I find others cheap and non effective
 
Conort2 said:
I’d always recommend using an external controller too. All heaters will fail at some point and if they fail stuck on like I’ve had in the past it means game over for your livestock.
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This is why I always recommend two or more smaller heaters rather than one big heater. If one of my heaters fails to permanently on then it's not enough to overheat the tank, it's just taking the bulk of the load from the other heaters. Although this advice is easier to follow in bigger/hotter tanks than smaller cooler ones.
 
As a young lad, I lost more than one tank of fish to faulty heater/stats
Personally I would never trust a heater/stat to be anything other than a heater
There is no need to spend loads on an aquarium computer, the reason I use one is so l can control pumps, lighting, dosing, all from one interface
There are any number of cheap (ish) thermostats , on various auction sites, I wired one up for a friend which even came with its own ssr, and all for less than £30.00, all that was additionally required was some wire and (for safety) an enclosure
 
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