Topfin heater

[kitykatfunkiehat]

I bought a Topfin 100W heater a few weeks ago (cheap and needed it quick..) from petsmart. Worked great until today. I did a 100% w/c on my BB tank with my pair in it and when I submerged it again, there seemed to be condensation inside the glass tubing, and it was emitting lots of visible waves in the water, and was quite hot to the touch. I called the store, and they were super nice about it, although they didn't have any answers for me. Topfin does have a lifetime warranty, but the product is not very good. It just wasn't trusty enough, for me at least! I don't want to take chances with my heaters.
I bought a Marineland Stealth Pro instead. I love those!!

[mlov1022]

I bought a Topfin 100W heater a few weeks ago (cheap and needed it quick..) from petsmart. Worked great until today. I did a 100% w/c on my BB tank with my pair in it and when I submerged it again, there seemed to be condensation inside the glass tubing, and it was emitting lots of visible waves in the water, and was quite hot to the touch. I called the store, and they were super nice about it, although they didn't have any answers for me. Topfin does have a lifetime warranty, but the product is not very good. It just wasn't trusty enough, for me at least! I don't want to take chances with my heaters.
I bought a Marineland Stealth Pro instead. I love those!!

Be careful with that Stealth Pro. http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showthread.php?t=77930

[kitykatfunkiehat]

Marc, I actually read that thread a while ago! So I knew what I was getting into. I am keeping an eye on them, so far so good. I have a year old Stealth that works PERFECTLY (knock on wood) so I'm sort of partial to Marineland. But thanks for the extra heads up!

[nc0gnet0]

Dare I ask if you unplugged the heater before draining the tank?

[Double Up]

Marc, I actually read that thread a while ago! So I knew what I was getting into. I am keeping an eye on them, so far so good. I have a year old Stealth that works PERFECTLY (knock on wood) so I'm sort of partial to Marineland. But thanks for the extra heads up!

I've got 2 stealth pro's in my 55 gal and they too work perfect. Had a hydor theo cook a tank once. I've never had a problem with marineland. I have marineland visitherms in my other 3 tanks. All are over 2 years old and are great !!

[Northwoods Discus]

This heater thing is crazy. Last night I was doing maintenance on my 100 gal and got a "little tingle" as I put my fingers in the tank. Not a great feeling. The fish did not seem stressed at all. Kept unplugging heaters and reluctantly touching the water until I found the culprit. I had 3 different Visi Therms in there. One in the tank and 2 in the sump.
Lately I have gone to external controller heaters and will phase out all the others. I have the JBJ ones that seem to be excellent so far. Love the digital readout. Very costly though.

[Jhhnn]

I'm sure many will agree with me when I offer that Jagers are arguably the best on the market and worth the premium, which isn't that much when purchased from Kensfish, for example, one of our sponsors. I've been plugging them into his finnex hc0800 analog controllers for extra security, which work fine, so far. Calibrate and set the Jager to 88-90F, use the controller to regulate at a lower temp.

Not an inexpensive way to go, but nobody ever offered that this whole discus adventure would be cheap, anyway... Heaters are a dangerous place to try to save a few $- I learned that years ago when a stuck heater cooked a tank of young discus while we were away on a 3 day weekend...

[Darrell Ward]

I absolutely agree that the Jagers are hands down the best quality on the market today, and I've used many in nearly 40 years of fish keeping. There is no reason not to use the highest quality heaters you can find on expensive fish like Discus, especially when you can get them from Ken's Fish and JEHMCO for twenty some bucks each.

[fish4fun]

i am quite partial to titanium heaters...
The 2 I have now have been running strong for about 8 years and the external control is dead bang on.

Won Pro Heat....
They have a digital version out now "pro heat II"

[Darrell Ward]

i am quite partial to titanium heaters...
The 2 I have now have been running strong for about 8 years and the external control is dead bang on.

Won Pro Heat....
They have a digital version out now "pro heat II"

I've run a bunch of titanium heaters in the past, and still have a couple 500 watters running on a dual Ranco controller. I've found them to be hit or miss. Some will run 10 years before burning out, others will only last 6 months. I had an 800 watt once that only lasted 3 months before burning out and trashing my Ranco controller, literally melted that sucker from the excess heat throgh the cord!

[kitykatfunkiehat]

Dare I ask if you unplugged the heater before draining the tank?

I did! I unplugged both of them and removed them. When I put it back I noticed the condensation.