Is 200 Enough?

[DatDiscusDude]

I recently had one of my old glass heaters fail on me. Luckily it was in my aging barrel and there was no harm/no foul.

I had a brand new Aqueon Pro 200 Watt heater laying around so I tossed that in. I noticed that this thing doesn't seem to be able to full heat my 50 gallon drum. I have it on full blast, I think it goes up to 86 and my temp seems to not climb higher than 77.

Is this heater just not strong enough for that size water? I thought 200W for 50 gallons would be enough? Maybe I am wrong?

The old heater had no issue getting that water to 83-84 in 24 hrs. Maybe it was larger than I thought. I have been running 200W for a few years now, but I always double up on the heater, so maybe that is it?

Any input would be appreciated.

[Willie]

It's more of a matter of the drum than the heater. If you were to

1. wrap the drum with insulation,
2. put it on wood so it's off the cement floor, and
3. cover the top,

then a 200W heater can bring water from 40F up to 84F overnight in a 55 gal drum. Before I did that, it would take about 3 days to get to temperature.

Willie

[DatDiscusDude]

Thanks Willie! It is in a brute can and it is off the floor. I do have a rubber top on it that stays slightly cracked for the heater and air stone wires and all.

I have not wrapped the drum, but that is a possibility. I also may just bump up the heater, I have a 250 I can toss in and see. Like I said, I had no issue with the last heater which makes me think it was bigger or this one isn't so strong?

[MendoMan]

That heater should do it.I wrapped mine with the insulation pad used on laminate flooring. A couple layers and it works great. You don't need to leave the lid cracked as you can place the air line and heater cord right by the handles there is a space on each side of both handles. If you have any small pieces of carpet they work great for covering the lids.

[HarryDk]

I have more from heaters to a few buckets of hot tab water in to the aging barrel to get the right temp, it is alot faster and so far, I haven't seen any negative reaction from the fish.