HEATERS

B

bpseoe

first off thanks to everyone that has giving me the help and knowledge i need to be a successful hobbyist.
Now......
I had to heaters in my sump 1.a theo 200w 2.theo 250w they were both set at their lowest which is at 71 i believe. that setting kept my water temperature at a steady 78. last night i was rearranging my return pump and accidently hit the 250w heater pretty hard and split it in half. i left the 200w at the same temperature setting (71) and now my water temp. is at about 81.
i really dont understand whats going on... how can i lower the temp back to 78 with the use of only one heater? would i have to get a heater with lower/higher wattage? would it be ok to leave the temp. at 81?

tank size: 125 gallons
i plan to only do fowlr and move onto reef as i learn more about it and purchase the correct lighting....... thanks in advance
 
You are really asking a question that could have a bunch of different answers. I could suggest this or that but in my opinon this is one area that we as hobbyist do not treat with enough concern. Heaters are basically an accident waiting to happen. There are some more expensive ones on the market but bottom line they all will eventually fail. Here is a very good read on heaters.

http://www.beananimal.com/articles/aquarium-heaters-what-you-need-to-know!.aspx

IMHO, get a controler and be safe. If you look on ebay and are a bit handy with elec wireing you can buy/make on for around $70.

OK off my soap box.

Just a couple of suggestions. Try moving the temp adjust up and down the scale a few times and then resetting. If I had to guess what might have happened is that the heater that broke was keeping the tank warm enough so that the other heater never turned on but since you lost the one, the other activated and is either not shutting off when it reaches temp or is never shutting off.

Keep a close eye on it, you do not want to cook your tank
 
You only need 3w per gallon. If your tank is 100g, you need two 150w heaters.

The temperature on the heater is basically irrelevant. Once your tank is at the temperature you want (78-79F ?), turn the heater on, then back off again, and find that sweet spot where the light doesn't quite come on. Now do the same with the second heater. In this way, the two heaters will come on when the tank temperature drops, and bring it back up to the the target range you like.
 
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