Heaters...jager trutemp?

[Ramie]

Looking for best heaters for 5 gallon and 10 gallon...brand and wattage...any that will work for both in a cold house in the winter and hot in the summer....i plan on upgrading to from a 5 to a 10....anyone use the jager trutemp in either of these size tanks...how is it? Thank you!

[Ken Dyer]

Have used the Jager trutemp in 20 gallons before, but not in a 5 or 10 gallon. They seemed to do the job just fine for me. Can't speak for their longevity past 1-2 years though as I moved to heating the fishroom and unplugged all but 1 or 2 of my heaters.

If you are heating tanks in a cold room I would over size a bit as smaller heaters can struggle to maintain temps in a cold room.

[Ramie]

@Ken Dyer would 50 watts be more than enough for a 5 gallon in a cold room....or is 100 watts better...or just gonna be way too strong?

[Ken Dyer]

I would think (scary when I start thinking) that a 50 watt would be sufficient for a 5 gallon, but it will depend on what you mean by a cold room. Are we talking a Californian's idea of a cold room or a Minnesotan's idea of a cold room 🙂 

Any way you slice it, it never hurts to have an "Oh carp!" backup heater so I would do the 50 and if you end up wanting more swap it out and save it for emergency use. 

[Daniel]

23 minutes ago, Ramie said:

Would 50 watts be more than enough for a 5 gallon in a cold room....or is 100 watts better...or just gonna be way too strong?

I am currently using 50 watt heaters to heat three 40 gallon breeder aquariums in 69 °F room. The lights on each aquarium contribute about 1 °F per light. The heaters manage to bring the aquarium up another ~5 °F. So ultimately I end up with aquariums that average about 77 °F. Here is the last week of temperature on one of the aquariums.

Yesterday was cold where I live and the heaters were only able to reach about 75 °F.

My preference is to use under powered heaters as heaters can potentially stick in the on position and if the heater has too many watts, this is potentially fatal to your aquariums inhabitants.

[Ramie]

@Ken Dyer @Daniel my room is currently 62ish but can get down to 40ish at its coldest in the winter. My 50 watt zacro heaters kept my water stable at 79 throughout last winter. But maybe they had to over work. Not sure. My fish died last spring and im getting another one soon but when i got my heaters out to prepare i saw cloudy discoloration on the glass on the inside in the same spot on them both. No other signs of damage. So...im just not sure.

[Daniel]

2 minutes ago, Ramie said:

..when i got my heaters out to prepare i saw cloudy discoloration on the glass on the inside in the same spot on them both. No other signs of damage. So...im just not sure.

Never hurts to get new heaters and it never hurts to control the heaters with an independent heater controller.

[Ramie]

@Daniel so..is an independent heater controller just like an external thermostat that shuts power to them off if they overheat the water or does it do other things.

[Daniel]

1 minute ago, Ramie said:

@Daniel so..is an independent heater controller just like an external thermostat that shuts power to them off if they overheat the water or does it do other things.

Exactly, set your heater a degree or two higher than your desired temperature and then plug your heater into the controller and then the controller (which has external thermostat in your aquarium) determines when your heater goes on and off.

That way if the inexpensive bimetal thermostat in heater fuses in the on position, you are protected. I think the Inkbird runs around $35.

[Duncans and Sons]

On 11/18/2020 at 12:53 PM, Daniel said:

Exactly, set your heater a degree or two higher than your desired temperature and then plug your heater into the controller and then the controller (which has external thermostat in your aquarium) determines when your heater goes on and off.

That way if the inexpensive bimetal thermostat in heater fuses in the on position, you are protected. I think the Inkbird runs around $35.

Daniel, how accurate are the external controllers?  Are they within a degree or two.  If so this may just become a general practice.  I don’t care how much I try to dial my eheims in they are always hotter or colder than what I set the, at.

[Daniel]

14 hours ago, Duncans and Sons said:

Daniel, how accurate are the external controllers?  Are they within a degree or two.  If so this may just become a general practice.  I don’t care how much I try to dial my eheims in they are always hotter or colder than what I set the, at.

I haven't found any heaters or heater controller that are accurate.

It always a compromise with heaters. If your heater is set to let's say 78 °F and goes off when it reaches 78 °F and turns back on when drops below 78 °F, then the heater is constantly turning off and on, which eventually will wear out the thermostatic controller on the heater potentially sticking the heater permanently on.

It is probably better to have the heater over shoot a little, then turn off for a set amount of time (hysteresis) before it comes back on again.

The reason I use external controllers is to safeguard against the heater's thermostatic control failing in the on position and boiling my fish. I have had that happen and it is very discouraging. But heater controller thermostats are just as likely to be off a degree or two as the heater thermostats. You just have to find out how much and in what direction the thermostat is mis-calibrated. One way to do this is measure with several thermometers and take the average and use this as the most accurate temperature. Or personally, I bought a NIST traceable thermometer accurate to within 0.1 °F and I use this to calibrate my other thermometers.

The strategy I am also using (besides heater controllers) is to use under-powered heaters. I use 50 watt heaters in 40 gallon aquariums (or larger). The heaters are set to 80 °F but the heaters are too weak to ever get the aquarium up to 80 °F. So they end up running all of the time and never, ever shut off. The aquariums end up staying between 75 °F and 78 °F

 

My belief is by never thermostatically cycling the heater, it prolongs the life of the heater. And I am also protected from the heater ever sticking in the on position as I have already caused the heaters to run all the time anyway.

Using these strategies I haven't had a heater problem since the 1990's.

 

[JettsPapa]

I have several of the Eheim heaters.  So far they've all worked well, and I think they have a secondary thermostat that will automatically turn the heater off if the temperature gets above a certain level.

If you do get one be sure to put a thermometer in the tank, and watch it for a while when you first turn the heater on and set it to the desired temperature.  All the ones I've used have been off by a significant margin, but they can be calibrated to correct that.