Heating water

[frenchbrit]

I have a fluval 300 heater on a 75 gallon tank. I am having trouble keeping the temperature up to 84 degrees. The tank is insulated on bottom and 3 sides and still the gauge on the heater reads 81.5. The room is an unheated basement which is about 60 degrees. The aging barrel I can get to 84 degrees with reflectix insulation around it. Any recommedndations or hints? I need to get good thermometer verify temperature is correct.
Thanks
Steve

[mastermamo]

I use 2 heaters on all my tanks . One is laid horizontally on the back of tank and one is on the side of the submersible filter. A Eheim 300 and a Eheim 250 for redundancy should 1 fail. Both are set at 28 degrees Celcius and my temp never fluctuates beyond half a degree. In my 2m tank I use 3 heaters. One on back and one on either side of tank. My tanks don't need to be insulated at all.

http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/09/30/u4u3adet.jpg

[frenchbrit]

Hmm...definitely not what I expected from a 300 watt heater. I figured that 300 would be more than adequate and have a 100 watt also for redundancy. I put 1/2 inch foam insulation just for expected energy savings.
It's definetly a head scratcher. I may have to try an old fashioned light on/light off heater and see if that works better.

[DiscusLoverJeff]

Heaters of late of all brands just don't seem to hold temp long in the "high temp" world of discus keeping. I find the higher the watts, the shorter the life span.

I have for the last couple years used Jager (Eheim) heaters. Recently I had to replace 3 of my 250 watt heaters and 2 of my 200 watt heaters.

Maybe when any heater is tested for accuracy, they only test the limits between normal ranges like 74-82. We use 82 all the way to 90 in some instances.

[bleublaze55]

I've had several heaters. Eheim and Via Aqua seem to be the best from my experience. I have a Fluval 300W heater as well. However, I do not go by the gauge on the heater but the thermometer I measure with. Its like any device. Its not always going to be accurate but the results could still get you there if you just crank it up...

[Cullymoto]

Your trying to get 24 degrees over ambient room temperature. All heaters are rated for 7 degrees over ambient temperature for (x) amount of water. Read the package, I might be off of the degree or two but it is not very much over ambient.
I just re read this and I'm sorry for coming off like a giant dick.

[strawberryblonde]

I'm not so sure that the 7 degrees over ambient temperature holds much water...for me anyways.

I currently have a 150w heater in my 55g tank and it's holding the temps at 85. Ambient temp is about 68F. I fill my tank with 82-83 degree water and the 150w heats it to 86 within an hour and holds it steady.

For my 110g tank I use a 350w titanium heater and it never really fluctuates at all. Holds the temp at 84F. Ambient temp in that room is 70.

[troysdiiscus]

Toni, what brand is your titanium?
I'm not so sure that the 7 degrees over ambient temperature holds much water...for me anyways.

I currently have a 150w heater in my 55g tank and it's holding the temps at 85. Ambient temp is about 68F. I fill my tank with 82-83 degree water and the 150w heats it to 86 within an hour and holds it steady.

For my 110g tank I use a 350w titanium heater and it never really fluctuates at all. Holds the temp at 84F. Ambient temp in that room is 70.

[strawberryblonde]

Hmmm, I'm not really sure Troy. I had a heater with controller, and the heater was 500w. It went nuts one day and heated the tank to over 100 degrees, so I pulled that one out and replaced it with one I found on Amazon. It's only 350w, so there's a lot less danger of it being able to get 115 gallons of water to 100 degrees. =)

[frenchbrit]

Thanks for the discussion everyone. So I did the old computer standby thing. Pulled the plug on the heater, waited a few minutes and reset the temp to 86 degrees. I purchased a thermometer to check the "real" temperature and lo and behold the heater is now holding the tank at 84 degrees! Obviously I have a second heater for redundancy but the Fluval is holding the temp steady for now

[Gorf]

Which Fluval model is this please?

[frenchbrit]

The heater if a Fluval E 300.

[Gorf]

I had a Fluval E series heater in every tank & had to throw them all away. I loved the concept, both the electronic accuracy & also the guards on the heaters. However they are very low powered & will suddenly stop working & have to be rebooted to get running again. Not good if you're on vacation. The other issue I had with them was that when turning them off during water changes, they would not start heating again unless cycled off & on several times.

This is a direct comparison between Fluval E heaters & Eheim Jagar.
260 litre tank, room temp during winter - 16deg C. Tank requirement is 28deg C.
Need 12deg C of heating, correct spec for 260 litre is 1x 300W, so I bought 2x 300W.
These heaters never managed to get my tank above 26deg C. So I bought a 3rd 300W heater. That made 900W of Fluval heaters that just about kept my tank at 28deg C.
I got fed up with the heaters for the reasons above & replaced the 3x Fluval heaters with 2x Eheim 200W heaters which easily keep my tank at 28deg C.
That is 400W of Eheim against 900W of Fluval.

The negative of the Eheim heaters is that they are poorly calibrated & have no heater guards, but they work well & I have now replaced the Fluval heaters in all my tanks with Eheim.

[Discusdude7]

I have had 3 ehiem jäger heater and all were off by at least 3-4 degrees. I even tried to recalibrate them and it didn't change anything. I ended up switching to a cobalt neo them heater that keeps the water within .5 degrees of set temperature.

[tonytheboss1]

:bandana: 150w Eheim Jager for the Q/T & Jehmco 500 watt Titanium Heater w/ ETCI Controller + a backup 300w Eheim Jager for the main. Maintains 85 degrees +/- 1 in ambient rm temp about 72 degrees. "T"

[nikond70s]

using a glass top helps a ton. cuz heat rises. i have a 135g, insulated the back and side of the tank. and i have a glass cover on top. with 2 aqueon pro heaters 250w. it holds my tank temp at a steady 84 easily. i believe i can get away with just 1 250w heater but 2 just to be safe. i didnt use a glass top before cuz i prefer open top. but ever since i added a glass top and covered all the holes to make sure lil to no heat escapes. i notice a major difference. my heater has def been on less.