Hiya, Well, I need another new heater...I known, it's summer, why do I need one? Sigh...Hubby likes to keep the house at 69 at night, so my tank gets down to 78 or lower. During the day it gets up to 83 because I turn the a/c up so the electric bill won't be to nasty. I lost my Stealth right around the time we had the discussion on them, so I bought a flugal/fluval? Can't remember the name really. It's rated for a 65 gallon, but my tanks only a 46, so you'd think it'd be good enough. We'll it's NOT!!! What brand do you guys recommend that will be reliable? Kim/Benton, AR
Kim I still run my stealth (18 months now) - imo - any heater can fail & if you google any brand, you will find one that cook tanks - only real safety element you can introduce to help is a controller. This JBJ $99 heater & controller is a good one. http://www.marinedepot.com/JBJ_True...um_Heaters-JBJ_Lighting-JB1531-FIHTTH-vi.html On a sidenote - Marineland (stealth) does stand behind their heaters, one of the members of the RSM Club recently (3 months ago) had has new stealth stick on, they had him mail it in & then cut a check, paid him for all his fish & corals $$$ now that as it should be a stand up company.
Hiya, I may still have my stealth around here. It came with the tank when I bought it. I don't even remember why I changed it. I do agree that any company that is willing to replace livestock like they did is a great company. The current one I have, it sticks too, but it won't come on, so I guess I'm lucky in that matter. Kim/Benton, AR
I use stealth heaters in the winter and don't need any in the summer. I haven't had a problem out of my stealth heaters. But a temp. controller is the best way to control the heaters as you don't have to rely on the built in thermostat that is on the them.
I have a WON titanium that is about ten years old. It has an external temp control setting, and hasn't failed me yet. But I am running it through an AC Jr. - so I have an extra layer of protection for it. I recommend at the minimum, a Ranco temp controller, for any heater. For a little more money though, you can buy a Digital Aquatics RKL for $99 and control 4 outlets. HTH, Ronnie
when it comes to heaters you really want about 2 watts per gallon to make sure its enough. i also like redundancy so i have back up heaters set for diff temps incase the primary goes down. i would also suggest an external controller like the ranco
