Is my heater not good enough?

[ReeferHolland]

So yesterday I started heating my tank which is only filled with RODI water yet. I started heating more than 24 hours ago but the tank only gained 2 degrees. It's a 200L (53g) tank and I use the eheim thermo control 150 Watt. Should be fine for tanks 200-300L (53-79g). It also seems to keep hanging at 21-22 degrees celcius now and doesnt go up anymore. Is my heater broken or just not enough capacity?

 

[All_talk]

I use a Eheim 150w in a system about the same size as yours and it keeps up as long as the room temp stays above 65F. I have second 150w heater that will come on if the first can’t get it done.

What is the starting water temp and what is the room temp?

Is it staying on the whole time? Maybe it’s shutting off based on the heaters thermostat setting?

 

[ReeferHolland]

I use a Eheim 150w in a system about the same size as yours and it keeps up as long as the room temp stays above 65F. I have second 150w heater that will come on if the first can’t get it done.

What is the starting water temp and what is the room temp?

Is it staying on the whole time? Maybe it’s shutting off based on the heaters thermostat setting?

Yes its staying on the whole time. The starting water temp was 19 celcius so thats 66 fahrenheit. Room temperature fluctuates between 17 celcius at night and 21 at day (63-70 F). It doesn't seem to shut off and the thermostat is at 25.5 (78F) the red light is always on. It slowly starts to creep towards 22 now but it takes almost half a day. Should I return the heater or buy an extra one? How fast should it heat, not maintain temp?

 

[monkeyCmonkeyDo]

Yaaaaa get the 300w ehiem or aqueon pro.
D

 

[monkeyCmonkeyDo]

I personally use an 800w finnex element with the 800cu dial analog controller as my personal preference and tank size.
D

 

[Shibaken3]

I definitely think it's broken.BUT before you return it maybe the heater is off try out different temperatures like 80 and if it still doesn't budge I think it's a defect.

 

[ReeferHolland]

I personally use an 800w finnex element with the 800cu dial analog controller as my personal preference and tank size.
D

And what is your tank size? Did you get the recommended wattage of your heater? Or one with more capacity than your tank?

 

[monkeyCmonkeyDo]

I always 1 up my heaters and skimmers
D

 

[monkeyCmonkeyDo]

240g with ruffly a 60g sump
D

 

[All_talk]

So the light stays on, but is the heater actually working, I would reach in a feel it.

With the room temps you are talking about a 150W might not be enough. I would go for a second 150W before jumping up to something bigger, two small heaters is safer than one big one.

 

[ReeferHolland]

So the light stays on, but is the heater actually working, I would reach in a feel it.

With the room temps you are talking about a 150W might not be enough. I would go for a second 150W before jumping up to something bigger, two small heaters is safer than one big one.

Yes I just checked and see some heat waves coming from it underwater. So the heater is working and not broken. However, the room temp was above 68 degrees all day today and the temp of the tank only went up 1 degrees this whole day. So I will buy another one. Does it have to be the same wattage? Or is a little less maybe better?
How about my electricity bill, will it be twice as much with 2 heaters? (Only looking at heating costs)

 

[vetteguy53081]

So yesterday I started heating my tank which is only filled with RODI water yet. I started heating more than 24 hours ago but the tank only gained 2 degrees. It's a 200L (53g) tank and I use the eheim thermo control 150 Watt. Should be fine for tanks 200-300L (53-79g). It also seems to keep hanging at 21-22 degrees celcius now and doesnt go up anymore. Is my heater broken or just not enough capacity?

Either too low of wattage or likely faulty

 

[All_talk]

The power required to heat the tank is the same whether is one heater or two, so no change in the electricity bill.

The wattage required to maintain the tank a temp will be a little less than what it takes to bring it up from a low temp, but you don't want to have "just enough".

I would recommend about 250 to 300 watts total.

 

[Cell]

Heater size guidelines are general recommendations, ambient temperature in your room will greatly affect your sizing requirement.

 

[doubleshot00]

Two heaters hooked up to an inkbird will heat that up way faster than one running off an internal thermostat.

I would order an inkbird and another eheim 150.

 

[Cell]

You stumbled into the best case scenario. Ideally you do not employ a single heater powerful enough to cook your tank if it were to fail and stay on past the set temp. Using 2 smaller sized heaters that combined match the required wattage is preferable.

 

[HawkeyeDJ]

You stumbled into the best case scenario. Ideally you do not employ a single heater powerful enough to cook your tank if it were to fail and stay on past the set temp. Using 2 smaller sized heaters that combined match the required wattage is preferable.

I was told that two heaters double the chance of a failure. Is it true that all heaters eventually fail?

I also read somewhere that the generally recommended wattage is 5 per gallon, but this person argued that 2 watts per gallon was safer. If it fails on it will take longer to cook the tank.

Thoughts?

 

[TheBear78]

Two smaller heaters mean that if one sticks on (not unheard of) it isn't powerful enough to cook your tank - as #Cell mentioned above.
An added bonus is if one fails you still have limited heating. The temperature will drop and indicate that there's an issue but hopefully not drop so much as to wipe everything out straight away.

Two heaters twice as likely to fail? Yes, but the likelihood if both failing is miniscule and even if one does go, you'll have a safety net.

 

[TheBear78]

Two smaller heaters mean that if one sticks on (not unheard of) it isn't powerful enough to cook your tank - as #Cell mentioned above.
Similarly, if one fails you still have limited heating. The temperature will drop and indicate that there's an issue but hopefully not drop so much as to wipe everything out straight away.

Two heaters twice as likely to fail? Yes, but the failure is

 

[TheBear78]

double post.