Two Heaters Watt for 50g Tank

kxnji · May 31, 2023

Hi! I recently upgraded to a Waterbox 50.3 and planning on buying an Innovative Marine Helio PTC Smart Heater. I’m looking to buy either the two 100watt heaters, two 200watt, or one 200watt. Which one would be best? Will the two 200watt’s be too much for my tank or will two 100watt’s be not enough?
Thanks!

CasperOe · May 31, 2023

I would go with 2 x 200 w heaters on separate controllers with one acting as a backup for the primary heater. Adjust your controllers in a way so that the backup heater will switch on if the water temperature drops lower than the setpoint for the primary heater suggesting a failure.

Hooz · May 31, 2023

The rule of thumb is 3-5w per gallon. With a 50g tank that puts you in the 150-250w range.

If you're going Helio, you can do a single 200w or 2x 100w, or, what I did (for a slightly larger tank) was buy the single element 200w then added a 100w element to it.