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.

 

[troublesum]

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.

I dont know if this helps i just found these a weeks ago and seems to work really well and they are a 1000 watts and the cords are pretty long

Amazon.com

 

[quikv6]

As for heating the 550 with consistency, why not put the heaters on an Inkbird controller. You can set the desired temp and differential (how many degrees lower from desired temp to activate). Then, you can crank up the dial on the heaters themselves above your desired temp. This way, the Inkbird controls power to the heaters. If the Inkbird is sending power to the heaters, the heaters will be heating, because you have them set higher than programmed temp. The Inkbird will cut power to the heaters when its probe senses that the desired temp has been reached. It turns pack on the power when the differential has been reached.

I have my target set at 78, with a 2 degree differential. At 78, the Inkbird cuts power. At 76, it turns back on the power.

 

[The Mule]

Thank you. That's exactly what I ended up doing - two Inkbirds, each with two heaters. So far so good.