Best place for redundant heater

[LeonThePeon]

I have a 12' tank build with a sump under. I've put a titanium heater in the sump that sucks 300w and thought if that failed, I should have a backup. Opinion on where to put the second 300w heater?

In the sump as well?

Or in the main tank (in the corner) - Though I'm going to have to confirm whether the it is advised not to keep heaters near pumps

Thoughts?

 

[Sierra_Bravo]

I have both together in the same compartment in my sump. If there is an advantage to having them separated I'm not aware of it. Both have their own independant thermostats which are in turn monitored by my aquarium controller.

 

[Flippers4pups]

I have a 12' tank build with a sump under. I've put a titanium heater in the sump that sucks 300w and thought if that failed, I should have a backup. Opinion on where to put the second 300w heater?

In the sump as well?

Or in the main tank (in the corner) - Though I'm going to have to confirm whether the it is advised not to keep heaters near pumps

Thoughts?

Next to the existing heater is fine.

 

[LeonThePeon]

Do you have them both turn on at the same time to reduce the on time? Or just work one and program the controller to turn the backup on if temperature doesn't increase in, let's say, 5 mins?

 

[ca1ore]

The only benefit to having a redundant heater in the display is to maintain heat should the return pump fail. To me, the aesthetics are not appealing, so all mine are in the sump. As long as you have adequate water movement, putting heaters close to each other is fine. My approach has always been to figure out how much heating I need, divide that by 2 and have three individual heaters of that value. So, if I need 600 total watts, I run three 300 watt heaters. That way no single malfunctioning unit can cook the tank, nor can it drop the temperature precipitously.