Which heater is best

Speaking of heaters, I need a thermometer. Do those sticker-type thermos work ok? I've heard that they not measure right.
 
The sticker thermometers are not very accurate. Either get one of the alcohol ones with a suction cup or a digital one. As for heaters, I have not heard bad things about either of those brands.
 
DR Foster and Smith has some heater on sale in their catalog. I order most of my stuff from them. Do you plan on ordering everything on line?
 
Go to drsfosterSmith.com and use these item numbers for heaters.
Item #YL157504, YL157517(if you plan to upgrade later) Search their other heaters and if you find another one you like let me know and I'll check to see if it's on sale in the catalog. Prices in catolog are different then on line Also sometimes. Item YL410903
 
There's a cool petstore I found here in town that will order items (including fish) out of the dfs catalog for me and not charge me anything for the shipping. Cool eh? anyway, I ordered a Penguin Marinland 350 filter, 100w Jager Heater and a floating thermometer with a suction cup. total was 54.62. Ordered it all from bigalsonline.com it was cheaper than dfs.
 
I wouldnt even run a heater... I dont and I have no problems. Heres some info to support the argument
.....Heaters have a bad habit of shorting out and remaining on. Being in business I hear this story about once a week. For the most part you don't need a heater at all. Pumps and lights keep a tank warm from their excess heat. It's OK to let your tank warm during the day and cool at night. The ocean does the same, especially in the shallow reef areas.
.....During low tide, the small pools left exposed often reach 100 degrees in the tropical sun. Small fish, inverts and corals survive just fine until the tide returns. I don't recommend that you let your tank warm to 100 but you can let it rise and fall 6 to 8 degrees daily somewhere in the range from 68 to 83. My shop tanks vary 6 or 7 degrees over 24 hours. This prevents thermal shock when there is a greater change in the tank from an especially hot or cold day. If you keep your tank at a fixed temperature during a very hot day and your tank suddenly jumps 10 degrees, the fish, corals. etc. really suffer.
.....If your situation is such that you REALLY do need a heater then put it on a timer. Set the timer to come on for a 4 hour period early in the morning; or in extremely cold situations for two 4 hour periods at different times of the day.
Work cited SeaHorse Aquarium Supply
 
I only run a heater in my reef and nano, my heater in my reef runs through a computer so that it can tell me if something goes wrong.
 
I have to disagree with Hawk.The horror stories I hear are from people using the same heater or one over-size heater for several years plus.Its better to use multiple small heaters than one large one just in case one sticks.I recommend everyone to replace there heaters once a year.Where Hawk got that story where a temp of a coral reef varies from 68-100 degrees sounds crazy.The temperature over a reef rarely varies a couple of degrees from day to night.Maybe a little more from season to season but not as much as Hawk stated.Maybe he's talking about the shoreline of a lagoon.I don't know of any corals collected near shore except zoos and maybe some inverts like nassarius snails.Thats my :twocents:
 
Freak is correct. The ocean is VERY large. It takes a lot to change the temperature of that amount of water just a couple degrees. Therefore, the temperature of the ocean DOES NOT vary that much over a 24 hour period. In tidal zones and lagoons, yes, but not where you find coral reefs (which are, on average, about 35 feet deep). The temperature at 35 feet doesn't change much at all, even from night and day.

I advise to have a heater, and try to minimize temperature swings as much as possible. The more stable you can keep your temps from day to night, the better. Having less than a 4 degree swing during a 24 hour period is ideal.
 
I would go with a heater to be on the safe side. I put two in my tank that way if one breaks the other one will take over. I also like the submersable ones.
 
I have a Hydor in my freshwater and it's been in there for a long time. I have a back up underneath in case it ever goes bad.
 

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