Best absolute heater to buy?

[Notsolostfish]

I have the marine x60.2 it's 36 gallons display, and 20 gallon sump. my basement have no heater. I run my freshwater with 2 heaters. What's a good heater/controller to buy so i can buy it?

 

[blaxsun]

What's your budget? A lot of people run an Inkbird with two titanium heaters for redundancy, so an Inkbird-306A WiFi controller with a pair of BRS 100-watt titanium heaters would do the trick.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Titanium and best brands are Finnex and via aqua

 

[Notsolostfish]

What's your budget? A lot of people run an Inkbird with two titanium heaters for redundancy, so an Inkbird-306A WiFi controller with a pair of BRS 100-watt titanium heaters would do the trick.

I dont have a budget. it's whatever the best. so 2 brs 100 watt? and the controller by inkbird?

 

[blaxsun]

I dont have a budget. it's whatever the best. so 2 brs 100 watt? and the controller by inkbird?

One of the best is supposedly the Innovative Marine Helio (200-watts total), but you're looking at more of an investment over the BRS version.

 

[Notsolostfish]

One of the best is supposedly the Innovative Marine Helios (200-watts total), but you're looking at more of an investment over the BRS version.

So you think i should go for the innovative marine? the thing is i wanna go 1 heater if possible instead of 2. Would that work ? my sump is small, and im trying to maximize the space?

 

[Kfactor]

i use finnex i have had them for over 3 years now . i run 2 200w on my 125g total water vol setup

 

[blaxsun]

So you think i should go for the innovative marine? the thing is i wanna go 1 heater if possible instead of 2. Would that work ? my sump is small, and im trying to maximize the space?

Yes, you can certainly go with one 200-watt heater instead of two smaller 100-watt heaters. I have the Inkbird and BRS titanium heaters and they've been rock solid so far. I'll be trying out a Helio system in the near future so I can't offer any personal opinions right now other than it looks to be a very nice setup and all indications are it will have some really nice advanced safety features and possibly more even heating.

 

[Notsolostfish]

Yes, you can certainly go with one 200-watt heater instead of two smaller 100-watt heaters. I have the Inkbird and BRS titanium heaters and they've been rock solid so far. I'll be trying out a Helio system in the near future so I can't offer any personal opinions right now other than it looks to be a very nice setup and all indications are it will have some really nice advanced safety features and possibly more even heating.

https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/helio-ptc-smart-heating-element-innovative-marine.html is that the helio?

 

[blaxsun]

https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/helio-ptc-smart-heating-element-innovative-marine.html is that the helio?

Those are the heaters, yes. You still need the controller.

 

[Notsolostfish]

Those are the heaters, yes. You still need the controller.

Whats with the plug? They need a special controller? U cant use an inkbird for them?

 

[blaxsun]

Whats with the plug? They need a special controller? U cant use an inkbird for them?

Correct. The Helio system has a proprietary controller, temperature probe and heaters (but you can replace the temperature probe and heaters with any IM version).



Other systems like the Inkbird, Hygger (etc.) use standard 2-prong heaters.

 

[Notsolostfish]

Correct. The Helio system has a proprietary controller, temperature probe and heaters (but you can replace the temperature probe and heaters with any IM version).



Other systems like the Inkbird, Hygger (etc.) use standard 2-prong heaters.

Is their controller good?

 

[blaxsun]

Is their controller good?

As I said, I haven't set my Helio up yet. I think it's going to be a superior upgrade over the Inkbird/Schego heater combination, but I need to run it for a while to get some data on how even the heating is.

 

[Maxx]

I'll be purchasing an IM Helios heater here soon. I have a similarly sized system as you (OP). 40 Breeder with a 20 long sump. I'll be going with the single 200 watt heater.

The big thing to note is that the IM Helios heaters come with a 5 year warranty standard. No one else does that. From a business standpoint, the only reason to offer a 5 year warranty period (included with the original purchase) is because you know the product lasts longer than 5 years.

 

[SmCaudata]

I'll be purchasing an IM Helios heater here soon. I have a similarly sized system as you (OP). 40 Breeder with a 20 long sump. I'll be going with the single 200 watt heater.

The big thing to note is that the IM Helios heaters come with a 5 year warranty standard. No one else does that. From a business standpoint, the only reason to offer a 5 year warranty period (included with the original purchase) is because you know the product lasts longer than 5 years.

Or you price it such that you've accounted for failures.

Seriously though, the Helios uses PTC heaters, which in theory have some nice safety built in. They are fairly new so long term reliability isn't known.

 

[Silverdot1211]

My vote is a ronco heater controller https://www.rancoetc.com/ranco-etc-111000-000-digital-temperature-controller
And 1 or 2 Brs ti heaters
It's heavy duty designed for industrial use and fits the bill if you opt for the sealed probe

 

[Malcontent]

I bought the 2 x 500W Helio PTC heater last fall though I was only using one of the heating elements. I thought I'd use two if I ever get a bigger tank (seems less and less likely these days).

It would sometimes work fine or throw periodic low flow errors so I silenced the alarm as the problem would go away in a few minutes. You can see where this is going. A couple weeks ago I notice not all the fish are eating. A few days later, none of the fish are eating and I know something's wrong. Then I notice the controller has thrown an error and the temperature is 66.5 F! The heater had thrown a new error ("probe out of water"--it was fine) that didn't resolve on its own.

I throw ~1500 W of 4 spare heaters in the tank (125 gal) and bring it back to temperature within a few hours. The greedy fish then ate most of the food that I fed them that morning, saving me the trouble of picking it all up.

I checked my thermometer/data logger and the heat was off from Thurs evening until Sunday morning. Everyone survived but I finally had enough and switched back to the old Fluval E (which, BTW, also has a 5-year warranty).

Additionally, the heating element looks like it may have a little corrosion.

I don't think the temperature readings are accurate once I started reheating the tank because the probe was flopping loosely in the heater chamber. But they're accurate when the heater was off showing the decline in temperature over 3 days.

 

[Lavey29]

I use the Helio system and find it to be perfect in all ways.

 

[Gp!]

The point of two (or multiple) heaters is so that if one fails in the "on" position that your tank doesn't get too hot as the other one still switches off at the temperature you want