Hello all,

I am looking at some solutions for a new heater for my tank. My current one is just a bit underpowered to handle the addition of my new sump/fuge.

So, I am looking at the Visitherm Stealth. Rob likes it. And I like the non-breakage of it since I am pretty rough on equipment. Guess what. Its too long to fit nicely and will come very close to touching the glass and most likely will be touching the glass once the high current gets to it do its thing.

So is this dangerous for the tip to be touching the glass? should I find something smaller?

Anyone know of a heater that is decent that can heat a 50 gallon system that is shorter than 12 inches?

thanks!
-Matt

you should be fine with it like that. i have never had a problem with my heaters touching glass or acrylic

one recommendation, while i do like the visa-therm stealth heaters, i found that the dials are sometimes off, so make sure you are keeping an eye on the temp.. what i mean is that you may find the dial to be off my 2 or 3 degrees, so if you set it at 80, it might come out to 78-82, just make sure you find the variance and set accordingly. so if you see its low by 2 degrees, and setting to 80 puts your tank at 82, just set the dial to 78 to maintain 80... hope that makes sense.
i have had any further inaccuracy or stability issues with them, so once set, you should be fine

My heaters sometimes have to touch glass/acrylic to fit right. I've not had a problem with that.

There are issues, however, with heaters tucked away in LR. It can cause the LR to heat up (as it absorbs the radiant heat) and while the water is a nice 82F, the rock can be warmer. This is NOT good for anything that will inhabit the rock.

Dave

The lack of an indicator light on the visitherm stealth heater scares me. I have had accidents in the past with heaters malfunctioning. Is this something that should be of a concern, or do I need to train my mind to not check for that little light anymore.

Never depend on anything but BOTH of your thermometers. ALL of my systems have at least two. In most cases, a standard glass thermometer and a digital thermometer.

The digital technology is good, and cheaper now than ever. Some come with high and low temp alarms. Just ensure that you keep a fresh battery in there.

Dave

i dont know how acrylic handes hot & cold pockets, but glass is a shocker, i have spilt a tank with a heater that didn't have enough water motion around it! thats all its about, water movement to wisk it away into an average temp though-out the system!

ive got the temp testers at each end to get a proper guage, puting at least one near the base will tell you alot as well!
also i have a temp sticky strip on the outside glass for that real cheezy effect from the fresh water days..lol
it picks up some ambiant temp, but its there for redundancy only!

Jags all the way for me
http://www.marinedepot.com/md_viewItem.asp?idproduct=EJ1111

I'm with Gwen... Jager are awesome heaters. Never had any problems with them.

yeah i'll be the third stoodge and say im happy with my jags.
the 300w are damn tall though!

I went ahead and bought a visitherm stealth last night. we have had a cold snap come through so I really couldn't wait. I stuck it in my fuge and it works real well accually. my fuge is slightly cut off from the rest of the system but the warm water still circulates through the rest of the tank nicely. I am suprised. The fuge is less than a degree warmer than the rest of the tank.

Its gotta be this way, there is nowhere else I can fit the heater.

What does any one think about a Hydor THEO heater?
http://www.marinedepot.com/aquarium_heaters_hydor_theo.asp?CartId=
I like that they are short to fit well in a smaller space in my sump. 200w is only 12", 300w is 15". I wish they had a 250w, but the Jager 250w is 17"!

never heard of them here

This part scares me: The Theo ‘minimum water line’ requirement must be followed for proper operation.

Just be sure you get a gazillion reviews before you plug in this heater if you dont have a controller. The only heater I would use without a controller is a Jager. A $20 piece of equipment can easily cost you your entire reef.

Keep in mind that reefs have a lot of water movement. If that heater goes underwater, is it ok? If the water line is low, what happens? Just a few things to think about. :)

To be honest you can use a Visi-Therm Stealth 50 watt heater in that 50 gallon aquarium. I'm currently using it and have used all of Visi-therms heaters on every aquarium that I own without any issues. The 50 watt should be just around 5 to 6 inches and is working fine even with a 1/15hp chiller installed. That should suggest how good they are.

If you pick one of them it also says this...
"Self-limiting: the patented PTC heating system guarantees operation in complete safety because in case of dry running there is no danger for damage" so maybe out of water it just shuts off instead of burning up therefore minimum waterline required for operation... Maybe, I don't know for sure.

So just be sure to put it in a place that will ALWAYS have the same amount of water in it. In my case, thats the fuge.

I plan to keep them right at the return to maintain solid temp and that will be level as long as my topoff works

Anyway, those ones I linked before are short... maybe helpful for you