Trouble with my Eheim Jager Heater

[mochaclownlover]

I watched the BRS video on how to calibrate the Jager heater and did exactly as they showed, I put it in a five gal. bucket to calibrate. In the bucket, the heater was set for 76 degrees and the heater would turn on and off to keep the water at 76. But in my 45 gallon tank, if I set the heater to 77, it will stay 77 for most of the day, but will then creep up to 78-79. Unlike in the bucket, I have never seen the heater turn off if the temp goes over the desired temp I set it to originally while in the tank. My tank is 45 gallons and the heater is rated for this size tank(125 watts) What am I doing wrong? This is my first time using a heater. Any help is appreciated.

 

[Highgrade]

Any residual heat from pumps/wavemakers/lights may increase your temp as well. Jager heaters are great but somewhat of a pain to calibrate. The temp dial isn't truly accurate and you should use a controller or a Thermostat heater controller with a temp probe.

 

[mochaclownlover]

Would any controller work? Looking into getting the Apex Jr.

 

[Highgrade]

Would any controller work? Looking into getting the Apex Jr.

The controller would need a temp probe. So you set the on and off temp for the heater outlet.

 

[Clownfish2]

I would turn the thermostat dial on the jager in small increments until I reached the desired fish tank temperature I was striving for. A possible reason for the overshoot in temperature in your fish tank is due to ambient room temperature, aquarium light heat, and heat from return pump and powerheads. in the warm season in North Carolina, my tank would indicate 79 at 8am and my house temperature would be 74, but by 6pm my tank would be 81 because of the lights being on for 8 hours and my house heated up to 76-77.

 

[mjlash22]

Without the use of a controller, such as an APEX, it is going to be hard to get and keep your desired temp without fluctuation. Being in the hobby over 10 years and using several different brands, I've yet to find the "perfect" heater. I use a Finnex and Jager in my reefer 250 and played around with both of them until I got +/- 1 degree (78 is my set temp). Every heater is going to fluctuate a small % to the desired temp. Being in Michigan where we get all 4 seasons, I usually have to play with them twice a year (summer/winter) to over/under compensate the temperature. Right now I have the finnex set to 82 and the Jager set to 80 which gives me my desired temp, +/- 1 degree.

 

[mochaclownlover]

Thanks for all the input guys The temp. has been staying a stable 80 during the day and 78 at night, and I'm finally getting comfortable with having the heater on without me sitting there watching it ;Watching

 

[SeaJay]

I got an eheim jager to use in a 10gal qt. The first two times it worked perfectly. This time when I set up my qt it shot up to 84. I should have just let it go to see how high it would go, but I turned it down until the tank got to 78, which puts the dial set to 69. It’s so far off I can’t even calibrate it. I have an aqueon I picked up at petsmart for an emergency hospital tank a while back and it keeps my 36 gallon tank at a rock steady 78. I use finnex in my DT and they are also extremely consistent. Needless to say, I’m not a fan of the jager. I think they’ve had to cheapen their product to keep up with the demand of being on every petsmart shelf. They were probably great at one time, but from what I’m reading online now, not so much. It will be the only eheim heater I purchase.