MARINELAND HEATERS

[subcooler]

Unfortunately I found you get what you pay for!
When I started getting back into fish(2007) I bought a few TopFin heaters(Petsmart store brand).They were relatively cheap(under 20$)I found more than one that in first week would not hold 84-86, they rode into 90's.They were sized properly for tank & unreliable even in storage barrell!
Quality heaters(visatherm, Jager) are expensive @LFS-but under 20$ online.Prefer Jager here-easier to set temp. Just my opinion!
Rob

[alxjss]

Let me tell u guys something. I have only been keeping discus since May of 07. i have went thru 13 heaters so far. Once or twice, at the most, might have been my fault. But NO more than that. I have tried almost every brand and cannot find a reliable heater. I have spent quite a bit of denero($) on these f*#!n things. The one and only heater that has kept steady temps, don't have to worry about unplugging when doing a w/c, and is a "set it and forget it" type heater is my hydor in line heater. I absolutely LOVE this heater. Noooo probs and I have had it up and running for about 3 mo. I can't get a in the tank heater to last that long. Do u think the high temps may have something to do w/it?

[phidelt85]

Knock on wood!! I have had no issues thus far and hope not to have any with my Visitherm Stealths. I take that back, I had one issue where it would not come on; granted it was a couple years old, but I took it back to P-mart and they gave me a new one.

I just picked up a controller for my storage tank, and am very pleased with it's performance. I will eventually get one for each of my 100+ tanks. You can hear when it kicks on and off and holds the temp within the range you desire. Definitely the way to go.

[alxjss]

How does the controller work? Does it help the heater? Give me more info jose, please

[phidelt85]

Eileen, you plug the heater into the controller with the heater knob turned all the way up. You then set the temperature you want to hold on the controller and how much the temperature can drop before it turns the heater back on. The controller has it's own thermocouple to read the temp of the tank. For example, I have mine set to hold 85 degrees with a deviation of 1 degree (may bump it up to 2*). When the temp of the holding tank drops 1 degree to 84 it turns the heaters on turns them off when it reaches 85. This will prevent the heaters themselves from overheating the water beyond what you want.

[Gillsie]

I have had ebo jager heaters for decades. I have stored some for as long as 10 years when I did not have many tanks and all of them keep performing flawlessly. So, all my heaters are great, but I do not know if EJ is still making them as good as they did 30 and 40 years ago.

[katt-ja]

how many min. watts should i have for a 55?

[Gillsie]

how many min. watts should i have for a 55?

In a discus tank, because you need to keep the heat high, you need at least 250 watts. Best to do it with two heaters, one on each end of the tank.

[MSD]

I am now, after failures from other heaters, using the Marineland Stealth heaters at 250 watts. These seem to be the most reliable of any others I've tried, even expensive titanium ones. I will just replace them at 1 or 2 year intervals and hope for the best.