Heater question

[jokerfla]

Is it possible to have a heater that's too powerful for a tank? I got a 200W heater for a 20g tank.

[12 Volt Man]

not really, but there is the danger that IF a heater that size ever got stuck in the ON position, the chances of you finding it out before its too late will be very very low.

10 watts per gallon will heat up your tank very quickly.

[Mgamer20o0]

thats why you get a good heater and not the cheap ones. i dont think you would need anything over a 100w. i would go with a visi therm heater.

[Aislinn]

I have two different 10g tanks, and I only have 50 watt heaters on them. They're both Visi-Therm, and the tanks are a solid, steady 78 at all times. One of them is a quarantine tank, and even with only a 50 watt heater, the temp will stay at a steady 84 if I'm doing a heat/salt treatment.

[lucky777ca]

There is such a thing, as there is a chance that the heater would continue to heat the tank, even though it isn't needed (ie, dysfunctional heater). That would mean that the temperature of the water in the aquarium would rise too rapidly over a short period of time due to the power rating of the heater (higher than necessary).

A 75W to 100W heater would be sufficient for a 20G... if it is able to maintain it at 84F at my house during winter, then a 100W heater would work for anybody that has a much higher room temperature (I assume that the room temp. during winter is ~54F since unheated tank drop to ~55F)

As long as it isn't the not-so-good brands, or two 50W would also work (would provide a safety net if one of the heaters fail).

[Star_Rider]

yes you can get a heater that is too large
in a case where this happens..the heater will shorty cycle..meaning that it turns on for shorter periods of time..in essence a short cycle may make the thermocouple cycle too often thereby wearing it out prematurely..the downside is the thermocouple may start to stay on too long and cause dramatic swings in temperature or my not turn off.

[Shane Reynolds]

If it is a quality-made product, you SHOULDN'T have a problem, but star_rider's comments should be heeded. Personally, I am of the opinion that those short cycle times lead to slight water temp variation because the heater so rapidly heats the water around it. In an ideal world, you could print out PetsMart's online price and get them to match it in the store and get a more appropriately-sized heater for about half what it would run at full-price. There are certainly other good heaters out there, but I don't think you will find one overall a better value than the Visi-Therm Stealth.

[jokerfla]

It is a visi therm heater. What I found when I turned it on was that it was heating up the water real quick and too warm, and then it would turn off and the temperature would drop really quick. Either way this 200W heater is not needed for this size tank, so I guess it waits around for my next tank, which will be bigger.

[ITHURTZ]

Just stay away from Theo heaters. Mine was 2 weeks old, and I came home and my tank was at 90 degrees. Boiled my little red cap oranda to death. My pleco and tin foils seemed to love it that hot, and the rest of the goldfish seemed ok, but probably didnt like it. I got a stealth now and its all good.