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Aquarium heaters

Interesting analysis tools. Using the same parameters one gave me 124 watts and the other gave me 324 watts.

Hamzasreef one has much more data points to calculate against and is probably more accurate (that was the 324 watt one).

Andy
 

ezrk

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Just some real world experience...

On my 125ish gallon acrylic tank (72x18x21) with acrylic tops I found a single 250w heater to be inadequate. While it kept the temp at 79F it was basically on all the time, so I added another 125w heater and it is fine.

I found a similar story on my 120g gallon+sump (48x24x21) where a single 250 was not sufficient so added another heating (150w I think). Again it could hold the temp, but was on a lot which I felt didn't leave enough margin for error or if the house temp got low, etc.

All my tank use Jehmco temp controllers which make this sort of adjustment easy as the heaters are all on or all off. One other thing I have found useful when going this route is to hook up a night light or something to the temp controller as well as this helps you get a sense for how much the heaters are running. It was instructive at our old place that the heaters NEVER ran in the Summer, the return pumps alone were putting out enough heat to keep the tanks warm even with AC.

In our new 55 we have a 200w heater which I think will be sufficient.
 
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