Updating Heating Systems

[The Mule]

I currently have four Ebo 300w glass heaters in my sump (tank is 550g, sump about 100g or so). The aquarium is in a warm room, so this setup and amount of wattage is plenty, but the heaters need to be dialed in each winter, so I'm always fiddling with the controls over a period of a week or so to get the tank to stay at 78, and inevitably I have swings up to 84 and dips too. I'd like to find a more stable setup that I can set and (more or less) forget. I have read good things about the Innovative Marine Helio setups, and was thinking I might try two of their 700w models on my setup. Anyone have any better ideas?

Also, looking for a better solution to heating my water storage tanks. I've been using Finnex 800w titanium heaters w/controllers on them, but the storage tanks are 7 ft tall and the Finnex heaters are only long enough that they hang in the tank, about 1/2 of the way down. Not ideal for various reasons. I need a heater with a very long (15-20 ft) cord that can reach the bottom of the tank and attach to an external controller.

I appreciate any and all suggestions or ideas.

 

[FJB]

An alternative to a heater with a long cord is to use a small power head inside the storage tank, which circulates the water within. I use a power head inside my set-up of 2 60gal plastic drums (connected in tandem via 2” pvc. It works quite well. Good luck!

 

[The Mule]

That's a good idea - thanks. Ideally though I'd like to have the heater at the bottom of the reservoir so that it's less likely to ever be exposed to air while it's on. I've cracked a few glass heaters (and melted the cages on one or two titanium heaters) this way.