Best Saltwater Aquarium Heater? You choose!

[klesel]

Jager all the way

 

[UMreefermedic]

I think I've had to use my heater one weekend in Miami about a year ago. The via aqua for the short time I used it worked great lol

 

[KingTriton]

Aqueon Pro

 

[Retro Reefer]

I'm impressed with the cobalt neo-therm.. thin unbreakable casing, easy one touch setup, led display shows both set temp and your actual tank temp simultaneously and the +/- 0.5 accuracy keeps my tank temp very stable.

RR

 

[Air_Cooled_Nut]

I have an Aqueon Pro 100 and an Eheim Jager 75W TruTemp. For my testing I have a mercury thermometer I used for my photography back in the day that is accurate to +/- .5 degree F (a half-degree Fahrenheit). I also have a generic floating thermometer/hygrometer that I do not know its accuracy but it agreed with my photography thermometer for temperature at the location it is positioned within the 29-gallon tank.

• The Aqueon Pro dial has a somewhat ambiguous spread but I set mine for 77F and it was spot-on. The heater is accurate to +/- 1 degree F
  
• The Eheim Jager was 3F hotter than indicated! Luckily the red indicator of the temperature setting is adjustable (hmm?) so I was able to correct/calibrate it. Given what's on the box, the accuracy is +/- 8 degree F! Yeesh

I did have another Aqueon Pro 100 but it died. It died because I had it plugged in but it was not in water...it was only a couple minutes tops and it is supposed to have a safety feature that doesn't allow it to come on if out of water. Wrong. The case split open due to over-heating. My bad and lesson learned.

 

[chessplayer86]

cobalt neo-therm

 

[Air_Cooled_Nut]

Careful with the Via Aqua glass heaters, bought one last Feb, died 3 weeks ago. After not running all summer, by the way. So yes, go with a controller, I have finally, seems my track record with glass heaters ain't been to hot lately (pun intended, LOL! ). I've had 3 different brands die suddenly in the last 3 years, with none of them over 3 years old and one brand new. So after replacing the Via Aqua with a Marineland Precision I also got a Finnex Digital heater control + memory, working well so far. Other heater in the sump is a Cobalt Aquatics.

I wonder if you either have 'dirty' electricity (brown-outs, surges/spikes, additional electrical devices causing noise) and need an electrical conditioner to clean & smooth the power input or they are not cycling enough (too much time between activation)?
Just a couple wild-done guesses

 

[Harry_Y]

I've had good luck running Jaggers over the years.

I tend to run multiples at lower wattage in case one ever does fail on.

 

[brandon151413]

I went with eheim all day and they are just ok

 

[jennyl1]

I had an EHEIM that wasn't working well so I switched to a Cobalt neo-therm and it was easy to setup and is much better at holding a temp.

 

[shawn1116]

I have an Azoo Titanium heater, works like a charm. Whatever you end up buying do yourself a favor and buy a external temperature control module..the last thing you want is a heater that fails in the on position.

 

[petro2342]

Another reason why I want a Apex controller.

 

[chris82079]

2 500w finnex titanium and 3 eheim jager 300w heaters all on apex controller

 

[Bill 4362]

Ranco sucks. Crappy customer service. And the owner is a *****. A major design flaw is that if power goes out, it goes back to C1...cooling mode, which will stop your heater from working.

Quite agree. Had to replace the sensor on my controller last week. Called and left a message at 8AM. At 11AM I emailed them, said I had been waiting 3 hours for a return call. Over a week has gone by. I have received no reply to call or email. Screw them! I will purchase a different brand!

 

[fernalfer]

i wanted a ehiem jager. but i need a 250 watt and they are just way to long for my sump unfortunately and does not fit. Any suggestions i need to pick a different heater.

 

[drstratton]

i wanted a ehiem jager. but i need a 250 watt and they are just way to long for my sump unfortunately and does not fit. Any suggestions i need to pick a different heater.

I use 3 100 heaters, that way if one fails you have 2 for backup. Get smaller Ehiems.

 

[Air_Cooled_Nut]

I have an Aqueon Pro 100 and an Eheim Jager 75W TruTemp...

• The Eheim Jager was 3F hotter than indicated! Luckily the red indicator of the temperature setting is adjustable (hmm?) so I was able to correct/calibrate it. Given what's on the box, the accuracy is +/- 8 degree F! Yeesh

...

Correction the accuracy range is +/- 4 degrees F. 8 degree spread. Sorry about that.

 

[SaltMan]

I’ve been using the Eheim Jager TruTemp 250 Watt a couple years now, controlled by Apex season table (If Temp < RT+0.0 Then ON).

 

[thehammer1985]

Never had an issue with a flu value for 4 years. However when I left out of town came back and set up new tank I went eheim jager I know have 2 in my biocube 2 in my 40 2 in a freshwater and 1 for salt change and 1 for fresh rodi. Absolutely love them I haven't had an issue in 3 years with 6 heaters . All but 2 are on an apex as well. With as much as we all have invested plus the fact you are caring for living creatures it's only right to put the most fail prone item on a controller

 

[Xtc_link]

I use cheap glass thermometers with a stc-1000 DIY controller.