Why do some people use multiple heaters in their builds? Are they less wattage or is each heater the wattage that’s required for their set up? I’m in the process of acquiring equipment for my set up and was looking at the eheim tru temp 200w it’s 15.7” long so it really doesn’t fit in my sump crystal 30 sump. Can can i get 2 smaller heaters to go in the sump? I feel like as I’m upgrading to a larger tank I know less about reefing than I thought! Please forgive the silly question and thank you!!
Purpose of multiple heaters?
- Thread starter a4edwin
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Goodair
Valuable Member
Set one heater to turn on at a lower temperature. Once the main heater dies, the second will kick in. If you have a monitor, and you see your tank is a lower temp than normal, chances are its the main heater and you can replace ad the second keeps the tanks alive.
Iván Olalla
Well-Known Member
Same watts needed but in two devices for protection, in case one fails to turn off you wont fry your tank and if one fails to heat the other one will save your tank from being to cold
ca1ore
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I actually use three. Figure out the wattage required, divide by two and buy three of that value. That way a single failing on cannot cook the tank and one failing off cannot drop it. Redundancy is your friend. Ideally you’d buy heaters with internal thermostats but use a quality external controller for even more redundancy. Seems excessive perhaps, but the most frequent cause of tank crashes seems to be heater problems.
Tastee
Valuable Member
As per prior replies, redundancy. If you are also using a controller (which I strongly recommend) you can use that to get redundancy to protect against fail on events to prevent your tank cooking. I use a combination of 2 heaters, an Apex and a chiller to cover most possible problems.
Paul B
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Rock Pool Reef Keepers
I think I have 4 of them in my 125. I just had them laying around and they don't get as hot as one large one. If 2 croak, I still have 2 working and if two get stuck on, probably nothing will happen.
Lorenzo Angotti
Active Member
Yes you can’t have enough backups in place, in this hobby you would not want to lose years of building and seeing your tank developing and then to suddenly lose it all.
Javelin
New Member
I run two separate 300 watt heaters in a 160 gallon tank. Each are controlled with a separate controller and each are plugged into separate outlets running to separate breakers. I have everything on my tank setup this way including powerheads and lights. If one breaker trips then my tank will not crash.
It’s all about not causing the tank to over heat. If you have one heater an it sticks on. As they do. Then the tank will over heat killing fish and corals in the process.
so by using multiple heaters there is less chance of Fatal Over heating.
so by using multiple heaters there is less chance of Fatal Over heating.
Silent
2500 Club Member
Redundancy and energy savings. I would rather have a 300wt heater kick on for a few minutes than a 500 wt heater kick on for a few minutes.
Some might dispute the energy savings but a smaller heater also pulls lets amps if you are concerned about that on your breaker.
Some might dispute the energy savings but a smaller heater also pulls lets amps if you are concerned about that on your breaker.
