What size heater?
- Thread starter drew2005
- Start date
trainfever
Active Member
You are going to need more than 200 watts to heat that much water. Dont forget you have to account for the water in your sump. Assuming that you have 20 gal of water in your sump, that would give you 95 gallons of water. To properly heat your water, you need 5 watts per gallon, that gives you nearly 500 watts. I would recommend 2-250 watt heaters. I say 2 because if one malfunctions, you still have the other to keep the water somewhat warm. That brings me to another topic. The Won Brothers heater are notorious for the controlers to malfunction. I had 2 of them go bad, one of them stayed on and the other wouldnt go on. I came down one morning to find the one had stuck on and heated my water to 9.6 degrees. I lost quite a few corals, shrimp and fish. The heating rod itself is great, its just the controllers that go bad.
sign guy
Active Member
Originally Posted by trainfever
You are going to need more than 200 watts to heat that much water. Dont forget you have to account for the water in your sump. Assuming that you have 20 gal of water in your sump, that would give you 95 gallons of water. To properly heat your water, you need 5 watts per gallon, that gives you nearly 500 watts. I would recommend 2-250 watt heaters. I say 2 because if one malfunctions, you still have the other to keep the water somewhat warm. That brings me to another topic. The Won Brothers heater are notorious for the controlers to malfunction. I had 2 of them go bad, one of them stayed on and the other wouldnt go on. I came down one morning to find the one had stuck on and heated my water to 9.6 degrees. I lost quite a few corals, shrimp and fish. The heating rod itself is great, its just the controllers that go bad.
dead on Id look at a jallie
You are going to need more than 200 watts to heat that much water. Dont forget you have to account for the water in your sump. Assuming that you have 20 gal of water in your sump, that would give you 95 gallons of water. To properly heat your water, you need 5 watts per gallon, that gives you nearly 500 watts. I would recommend 2-250 watt heaters. I say 2 because if one malfunctions, you still have the other to keep the water somewhat warm. That brings me to another topic. The Won Brothers heater are notorious for the controlers to malfunction. I had 2 of them go bad, one of them stayed on and the other wouldnt go on. I came down one morning to find the one had stuck on and heated my water to 9.6 degrees. I lost quite a few corals, shrimp and fish. The heating rod itself is great, its just the controllers that go bad.
drew2005
Active Member
Originally Posted by trainfever
You are going to need more than 200 watts to heat that much water. Dont forget you have to account for the water in your sump. Assuming that you have 20 gal of water in your sump, that would give you 95 gallons of water. To properly heat your water, you need 5 watts per gallon, that gives you nearly 500 watts. I would recommend 2-250 watt heaters. I say 2 because if one malfunctions, you still have the other to keep the water somewhat warm. That brings me to another topic. The Won Brothers heater are notorious for the controlers to malfunction. I had 2 of them go bad, one of them stayed on and the other wouldnt go on. I came down one morning to find the one had stuck on and heated my water to 9.6 degrees. I lost quite a few corals, shrimp and fish. The heating rod itself is great, its just the controllers that go bad.
If I go 2-250w do I put them both in the sump or one in DT and one in sump? I'd like to keep most equipment out of sight. I doubt i'll go with Won Brothers because of the possible controller issues. I will most likely be running a chiller as well.
You are going to need more than 200 watts to heat that much water. Dont forget you have to account for the water in your sump. Assuming that you have 20 gal of water in your sump, that would give you 95 gallons of water. To properly heat your water, you need 5 watts per gallon, that gives you nearly 500 watts. I would recommend 2-250 watt heaters. I say 2 because if one malfunctions, you still have the other to keep the water somewhat warm. That brings me to another topic. The Won Brothers heater are notorious for the controlers to malfunction. I had 2 of them go bad, one of them stayed on and the other wouldnt go on. I came down one morning to find the one had stuck on and heated my water to 9.6 degrees. I lost quite a few corals, shrimp and fish. The heating rod itself is great, its just the controllers that go bad.
If I go 2-250w do I put them both in the sump or one in DT and one in sump? I'd like to keep most equipment out of sight. I doubt i'll go with Won Brothers because of the possible controller issues. I will most likely be running a chiller as well.
scsinet
Active Member
Yep, Wons are trouble. I have a total of four of them. One of them is stuck on, one of them is stuck off, and one of them has a probe that has to be wiggled a certain way to work. The other one is still working... for now.
I didn't believe it myself until I had them start failing on me. I run Jagers now.
I didn't believe it myself until I had them start failing on me. I run Jagers now.
scsinet
Active Member
Originally Posted by drew2005
If I go 2-250w do I put them both in the sump or one in DT and one in sump? I'd like to keep most equipment out of sight. I doubt i'll go with Won Brothers because of the possible controller issues. I will most likely be running a chiller as well.
You can put them both in the sump.
My reef tank has a double arrangement like this. They are sitting right next to each other.
If I go 2-250w do I put them both in the sump or one in DT and one in sump? I'd like to keep most equipment out of sight. I doubt i'll go with Won Brothers because of the possible controller issues. I will most likely be running a chiller as well.
You can put them both in the sump.
My reef tank has a double arrangement like this. They are sitting right next to each other.
trainfever
Active Member
Yes, you can put both in the sump. If you have the funds available, look into heaters with separate controllers. I found a controller made by Finnex, its been working great.
Scsi, dont throw those heaters away. Just cut the controller off and put a new plug on the end, then plug it into a separate heater controller. You can plug more than one heater into the controllers, just dont go over the wattage rating. Just remember to mark the wattage so that you dont over heat the controller.
Scsi, dont throw those heaters away. Just cut the controller off and put a new plug on the end, then plug it into a separate heater controller. You can plug more than one heater into the controllers, just dont go over the wattage rating. Just remember to mark the wattage so that you dont over heat the controller.