Heater Placement

mdmacolyte

Member
Hey ya'll...
I have a quick question as to where you place your heater in your tank... I have a 90 gallon that we finally got set up lastnight and I had put the heater horizontally in the middle of the lower back and of course after everything was placed in there, and hooked up, I realized that my electric cord was not long enough to hook into my power strip... because all I could think about when I was setting everything up was "make sure the heater is turned off (unplugged) when you are doing anything in your tank." So I moved it so it was vertical as a quick fix for now since the tank is cycling, but I want to know if it should be lower or whatever for the rock. Thanks in advance!
Melissa
 

arkey.d

Member
I have mine vertical on the left side of my aquariums.... it is really just personal preference on the placement.
 

snipe

Active Member
Well it will heat no matter what but if it is close or infront of a powerhead it will heat more evenly. I also have mine verticle on the left side of the tank hiding right behind my powerheads. Titanium with its bright silver just dont look good in a tank lol.
 

mdmacolyte

Member
That's what I have (titanium) and I was trying to angle the rocks in front of it to hide it... I have an XP3 canister filter and I am kicking around the idea of putting the heater parallel to the ouput wand... either way though its still an eye sore... =) Thanks for the input Snipe!
 

mdmacolyte

Member
Im new to this and a bit wary about starting a sump/refuge, but I definitely see me doing that in about 6 months or so when Ive got my feet a bit more wet (and Ive recovered from the start up costs...LOL)
 

rpick

Member
I'v heard of people putting it in their sump (wet/dry filter). i have mine horizontally on the upper right of my tank. i have it near one of my heads where the heat gets distributed (hopefully evenly) throughout the tank. i also have a scwd (wavemaker) which helps the distribution.
 

kcobain111

Member
When i started my tank i had it in the corner and noticed that my temp was at 77 and the heater was set at 80. When i put in in front of my 170gph PH i noticed that without changing the heater my tank is now at an even 80 all the time.
 

pjmumie

Member
I have a CPR Bak Pak 2, and I have my heater inside the skimmer. It gets constant waterflow and my temperature has been consistantly 80 degrees since I did that.
Then I also don't have to look at it :)
 

snipe

Active Member
Do you have any ill effect placing it in the skimmer? Isnt the Bak Pak a venturi style would the heater break up the little tornado?
 

pjmumie

Member

Originally posted by Snipe
Do you have any ill effect placing it in the skimmer? Isnt the Bak Pak a venturi style would the heater break up the little tornado?

I have not seen any ill effect and the skimmer is skimming like crazy! The little tornado is on the RIGHT side of the skimmer, and it overflows into the left half. I have my heater in the left half which is just part of the overflow. Then the overflowed water goes through a tube and into the tank. I haven't seen any type of ill effect so far - the PH is still moving the same amount of flow into the skimmer, so the same GPH rate must still be there without it effecting the water output. :happyfish
 

maeistero

Active Member
weirdly enough, i have done away with my heater in my 55g. it never reached 74deg and seemed pretty useless surprisingly. my tank now averages about 72, and nothing has died off in the last year. (actually ever, but i do have brown diatomatious algae like a mofo) my apt seems to be strange tho, in that it's about 90 in the living room and 50 in the bedroom. i'm about to black plastic over the bedroom window for good. lol.:confused: :D
 

mdmacolyte

Member
Well, lastnight I rearranged my rocks and put my heater vertically in the left corner by the output wand, and this morning the left side was at 80 and the right side by the input valve was between 78 and 79. So I am happy. =) Thank you everyone for all your help!
BTW, somehow the heater is out in the open, but not really noticeable, which makes me happy too... =) Of course that will change when I finally get around to putting a backdrop down right? ...It never ends...
 
J

jamie907

Guest
I have a 46 gallon and mine's in the wet dry.. My temperature is pretty constant, too. I heard that if you put it inside the actual tank, you can't have certain types of fish because it messes with their brains. But keep in mind that I heard that from the same LFS worker who told me that I can't have powerheads because I have live sand and also told me that I could put in anything I want after a week of cycling.
 

snipe

Active Member
Yeah that lfs is lieing like mad. I know for tangs you want a grounding probe just cause they are more likely to pick up small amounts of electricity than other fish.
 
Top