Post by rainbowfish on Apr 11, 2018 19:01:26 GMT -6
If I had a dollar for every dumb aquarist that I heard whine and cry about their fish tank getting fried (often again) by their heater I’d have enough dollars to fund another trip to New Guinea! When you ask them what type of heater was it they will often name a cheap *ss brand. These guys (are you one of them??) will spend $100 on an AquaBid auction $50 on mailing costs and then put them into a tank with a $12 six year old heater. What could go wrong?
Now the heater pictured below is a cheap *ss heater, a Cascade brand. There is a place for cheap heaters. For me it’s for use in my fry tanks. They work well, heating the fry tanks and once you get them adjusted right hold the heat fairly regularly. I won’t be happy IF/WHEN they fail but at least I won’t be wiping out a full grown/rare fish that doesn’t have a backup in one of my other tanks. I saw this heater when I was cleaning a tank and even though it was still keeping the temps right in the tank I knew it was going to be failing soon enough. I think with some of these heaters, when they get leaky you have to worry about electrocuting yourself also.
For your important tanks use a good quality heater. At the end of the heating season TAKE IT OUT of the tank, clean it, dry it and store it safely away. The box it came in is a good place to keep it from getting broke. For most of my heaters they are only in service for about 6 months so it’s kind of stupid to leave them in the aquarium. The rubber suction cups, which can be very pricey to replace will last twice as long. You can’t accidentally break it when it’s not in the aquarium either. The seals on the heating tube aren’t being subjected to the pressure of the water. For big tanks I use TWO heaters, each at half the wattage value suggested/required for the tank. IF one of your quality heaters breaks and starts to heat the tank up, having something smaller will make it much harder to boil your fish. Yeah it pays to also have one of those Coralife digital thermometers in your important tanks too so you are always aware of the temps.