Best Saltwater Aquarium Heater? You choose!

CastAway

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New build. Will be using two 300W Finnex controlled by a American Marine Pinpoint temp controller. No experience with either.
 

Eienna

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is it really important to keep a constant temp? mine never goes below 75 but will always get to 79 How much is to much flux's

YES. In the ocean, temperature changes VERY slowly (with a few exceptions, such as shifting currents) because of the sheer volume of water being heated or cooled. By comparison, aquariums heat and cool very very quickly, and this is stressful for corals.
 

blue.flyzz

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Eheim Jagers, a little work is needed in getting them calibrated, but once done they are spot on and long lasting
 

prdubois

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Cobalt makes some sweet heaters. Very slim. No glass to break or leak. Displays set temp and actual temp at the same time. Easy to read and set.
 

shred5

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No such thing as a good heater. I have tried most brands and all fail and always at the worst time..
Temperature controller like ranco is the best. If not a ranco use one of the aquarium controllers. I also use a second thermometer in all tanks.
 

jwebber974

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Two Finnex 500w Titanium with the Apex controller. One serves as a backup in case one would die.
 

vetteguy53081

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I use Ebo Jager but just purchased the New Fluval E300 digital and am VERY Impressed !!
 

Engloid

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If you buy an Eheim Jager, be prepared to calibrate it yourself. Also keep your receipt, because even though it's only about a $40 item, they won't help you if you don't have it. Even if you have it, you're looking at having to email a receipt and it ships from overseas....so you will be out of a heater for quite a while. Hope it's not winter and your house is cold or the $40 heater will cost you a lot of livestock.

I did consider going to buy a new one, and using that receipt to get the old (less than a yr old) one replaced, but didn't for 2 reasons. It's not honest and i"m not lying and cheating for that much money. Second, I don't want another one. I want to replace these with a product that the company has a valuable warranty.

Yes...I ran into this. It took about 4 days to get solid word from them that they would NOT replace without a receipt. I have bought 4 of their heaters, ranging from 200-300 watts. I now regret buying any of them. warranty isn't worth a lot if you have to wait so long for a replacement that your fish die.
 

michaellee64

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Eheim Jagers, a little work is needed in getting them calibrated, but once done they are spot on and long lasting
I thought the same thing until I just had one stick on me and cook a tank that I have set up for a friend. She ended up losing over half of her corals, but luckily I just had to reach into my frag tank and had it looking good in no time. If she had to go out and buy the corals it cooked it would have been over $600 worth! I use a controller and titanium heaters on my setup, and have never had a failure. I don't ever see me using a heater again without at least a Ranco control. 180G Mixed Reef, 90G In Wall Reef, 60G Cube Seahorse Tank, Oceans Motions, 55G Refugium, 40G Frag Tank, 125G Basement Sump with ETSS Skimmer, Dosing Pumps, GFO Reactor
 
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Bump!
 

blue.flyzz

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I thought the same thing until I just had one stick on me and cook a tank that I have set up for a friend. She ended up losing over half of her corals, but luckily I just had to reach into my frag tank and had it looking good in no time. If she had to go out and buy the corals it cooked it would have been over $600 worth! I use a controller and titanium heaters on my setup, and have never had a failure. I don't ever see me using a heater again without at least a Ranco control. 180G Mixed Reef, 90G In Wall Reef, 60G Cube Seahorse Tank, Oceans Motions, 55G Refugium, 40G Frag Tank, 125G Basement Sump with ETSS Skimmer, Dosing Pumps, GFO Reactor

man that sucks, but yes, I have a controller connected to my heaters, I wouldn't trust any heater
 

mike007

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Cobalt Neo- Therm on Apex Controller.
 

mcghee33

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Via Aqua Titanium, I have had nothing but problems with glass heaters, Eheim and VisiTherm included. The Titaniums come with a seperate controller and temp sensor and are extremely accurate.
I couldn't agree with you more! The Via Aqua titanium is a fantastic heater with a great price and has been nothing but reliable. I have had mine for well over a year, now.Approaching 2 years and this this is rock solid. By far one of the best heaters out there if not downright THE best heater out there.
 

that Reef Guy

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Controllers are important since heaters most likely will stick on at some point. A reefkeeper or other is not in my budget so I use heaters that come with a controller or add one for about $30. These small controllers function by setting the heater to the highest setting (or just over what you want to be safe) so it is on all the time. The controller has a probe to measure the tank temperature and turns off the electricity to the heater when the temp is reached. It is cheaper to buy a good heater with controller than to add the extra cost of a controller to one but I had some old heaters that were stuck on all the time so I bought one. Read the fine print since these controllers are rated for a certain wattage, some at 300 watts so could not be used for a heater over that. Mine is rated at 1000 watts.

Who makes these 30.00 Heater Controllers?
 

Engloid

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No jager for me. I heard they went downhill when they got with hager. I bougbt three of them last year. Two of them have gone bad since. The LFS told me to get with jager. Jager wanted to play email tag for four days, asking me how i knew it was bad. i put it in a bucket and couldnt regulate temp.

Then, they wanted a receipt....lesson learned there.. I will always keep heater receipts now. If these companies want to make junk and wiggle out of paying for them, i will do my part to encourage them to make better quality by making them pay.

Even if i had the receipt, it would have been two weeks or so to have the jager replaced. Thats not acceptable when i can lose fish and corals in a couple days.

The latest ive bought is a fluval titanium with the digital readout. It seems to work good so far, and got my system up to temp overnight.

The question i have is.....when you have four thermometers and none of them read the same, how do you know which is right?
 

Fin

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I have a couple of Mag drive pumps in my sump and I don't really need a heater. :) Seriously though, I have a ViaAqua Titanium heater and use a separate Ranco controller. I am not sure it ever comes on though. :)
 

miyags

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N





The question i have is.....when you have four thermometers and none of them read the same, how do you know which is right?
Thats my problem I have a glass, digital,a stick on thermometer and are a little off. but which ones?
 
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