Heater

[Polyp Punk]

Hey Reefers,
What is a great quality heater for a 15 gallon nano ? Anything out there that is capable of wifi connection to monitor the tank? Looking for quality something reliable.. also how many watts is sufficient for a nano like this ? Thanks everyone !

;Turtle

 

[dmy535]

Watts 75/100 or so. As far as quality? That’s going to stir up many who will give you difference in opinions. Your best bet is to go on the website and read the reviews. As for the WiFi, not that I am aware of unless you have an apex or controller to monitor the temp.

 

[Waters]

Heater brand really doesn't matter. I have buckets full of dead heaters from the cheapest to the most expensive. Just make sure you get a good controller and plug whatever heater you want into it. I think Inkbird makes some inexpensive WiFi controllers for heaters?

 

[vetteguy53081]

Small titanium heater bu via aqua or finnex
Very reliable units

 

[Polyp Punk]

Small titanium heater bu via aqua or finnex
Very reliable units

yea i had a titanium heater in my last tank and loved it.. any certain brand of titanium heater ?

 

[aquaman05]

I had a glass heater break in a tank one time and lost all my fish so I stay away from those. I was using a jbj true temp titanium with controller hooked up on my apex for years without any issues. I'm just getting back into the hobby after about a 4 years so I was reading about heaters for days to see if there was anything new. Everytime I thought I had one picked out I found bad reviews...
I have a 40 gallon cube and I went with a 200 watt cobalt neo therm . I've had it about 2 weeks and it holds my tank at 76. Still deciding on a controller.

 

[vetteguy53081]

yea i had a titanium heater in my last tank and loved it.. any certain brand of titanium heater ?

fINNEX OR VIA AQUA

 

[Polyp Punk]

fINNEX OR VIA AQUA

i found something perfect on BRS... they have the ink bird wifi heater controller with the 100W BRD heater for 99$... or should i go with the finnex heater ? only comes in 300 watt for the same price as the 100W BRS heater...both titanium

 

[vetteguy53081]

i found something perfect on BRS... they have the ink bird wifi heater controller with the 100W BRD heater for 99$... or should i go with the finnex heater ? only comes in 300 watt for the same price as the 100W BRS heater...both titanium

Depends on your budget.

 

[Brewski262]

Ink bird makes a heater and cooler aio controller that has wifi with an app. I dont have ig yet but I've been eye balling it for a while.

I've been using cobalt neotherm heaters for the last 4 years and never had one fail. I would say 75 to 100 w would do just fine.

 

[Reef.]

yea i had a titanium heater in my last tank and loved it.. any certain brand of titanium heater ?

Most titanium heaters come without a thermostat so you will need a controller to work it.

wifi inkbird is good and cheap.

 

[Reef.]

Check the size and where it’s going before buying as some can be quite big. You could go for 2 50wat if the 100w is too big.

 

[Brewski262]

Also to note, if you get a heater with a built in thermostat and use a heater controller, if set properly you gain redundancy which is an awesome piece of mind. Compared to a heater without a thermostat your solely relying on the controller.

I dont know much about the controllers, maybe they fail in a safe mode and just shut off? Not sure.

 

[Polyp Punk]

Ink bird makes a heater and cooler aio controller that has wifi with an app. I dont have ig yet but I've been eye balling it for a while.

I've been using cobalt neotherm heaters for the last 4 years and never had one fail. I would say 75 to 100 w would do just fine.

im going to go with the BRS heater with ink bird controller... the lowest finnex wattage they have is 300 but its around the same price as the brs.. do you think its good to have a little head room with the wattage and to go with the finnex since its the same price for higher wattage ?

 

[Brewski262]

im going to go with the BRS heater with ink bird controller... the lowest finnex wattage they have is 300 but its around the same price as the brs.. do you think its good to have a little head room with the wattage and to go with the finnex since its the same price for higher wattage ?

I dont know much about finnex unfortunately but I can say that more watts is better than not enough and if its comparable prices with more wattage.. seems like an easy choice. Assuming there's no major flaws with that model or brand

 

[Brewski262]

Wait, isn't this for a 15g nano? I'm not even sure a 300w heater would fit lol.

I use a 75 w in my WB10 in a cold basement and it does great with keeping up.

Save some cash and step it down to a 100w

 

[Gtinnel]

I have the inkbird ITC-306a and absolutely love it. Once it warned me that my heater had failed so it quickly paid for itself. I agree hat using a heater that has its own thermostat is great for the redundancy.
Normally I'd say go for the bigger heater if the price is the same but since it's that small of a tank I think this would be the exception where I would pick the smaller one.

 

[polyppal]

Hey Reefers,
What is a great quality heater for a 15 gallon nano ? Anything out there that is capable of wifi connection to monitor the tank? Looking for quality something reliable.. also how many watts is sufficient for a nano like this ? Thanks everyone !

;Turtle

Brand absolutely does matter with a heater. None of them are great, but a 75w/100w proven Eheim Jager is a much safer option than some 15$ no name heater off amazon.

That being said, best practice is a heater that is slave to a controller, but that may be overkill on a nano tank. I would just plan on replacing it yearly. Personally, I use two BRS heaters (one primary/one backup) tied to my Apex on my 74g.

 

[Gtinnel]

Brand absolutely does matter with a heater. None of them are great, but a 75w/100w proven Eheim Jager is a much safer option than some 15$ no name heater off amazon.

It's amazing how different peoples opinions on a product will be. I have only had 2 heaters fail on me in my many years of keeping aquariums and both of them have been Eheim Jager. I have now started buying the cheap (although Eheim aren't expensive either) heaters from Amazon. I keep a backup, and will plan on replacing them every year or so.

 

[Hugh Mann]

My only input here is to +1 what a lot of folks are saying.

Avoid glass heaters. Buy a temperature controller. Inkbird is a good choice.

Do both of those and you're good to use just about whatever.