Good heater?

[musho3210]

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/Product/Prod_Display.cfm?pcatid=11369&N=2004+113767

Getting one 200 watt

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/Product/Prod_Display.cfm?pcatid=3852&N=2004+113767

And one 200 watt of this

Is this really worth the cash or should i just get 2 200 watt visi-therms?

75 gallon planted tank with XP3 canister filter.

[H3D]

I like the Visi-Them Stealths better personally.

[Slappy*McFish]

Ditto. Get a Stealth.

[Mgamer20o0]

i would just go with two visi therm.

[elks]

Haydor
Pro - No heaters in tank , even heat through tank , easy to change temp.
Con- only 1 heater on tank

Visa T
pro- 2 heaters in case of one failing

Con-2 heaters in tank , Not easy to change temp, glass tubes easy to break especially if left partially exposed to air@ as in water changes or changing temp setting

[DarkSoul]

Haydor
Con- only 1 heater on tank


only if you arent creative, and dont buy a T to connect two.

[Mgamer20o0]

Haydor
Pro - No heaters in tank , even heat through tank , easy to change temp.
Con- only 1 heater on tank

Visa T
pro- 2 heaters in case of one failing

Con-2 heaters in tank , Not easy to change temp, glass tubes easy to break especially if left partially exposed to air@ as in water changes or changing temp setting

still would have 2 heaters. said one inline and one visi therm.


if he got the stealth wouldnt have to worry about glass tubes breaking also.

[J double R]

i bought a titanium heater online for the 75g... it has a separate temp sensor, and a separate temp controller that is marked to the half degree... 300w for only 25 bucks, and it works wonderfully!

[H3D]

i bought a titanium heater online for the 75g... it has a separate temp sensor, and a separate temp controller that is marked to the half degree... 300w for only 25 bucks, and it works wonderfully!

I tried these and had many problems with them shorting out, so be careful when using these when they are plugged into a surge protector.

[J double R]

I tried these and had many problems with them shorting out, so be careful when using these when they are plugged into a surge protector.

a surge protector? was the problem with the strip or the heater, or the combo? mine is plugged directly into the wall.

[elks]

only if you arent creative, and dont buy a T to connect two.

Darksoul
I believe my response was to the specific question asked { 0ne Haydor or two Visi-Therm]. Speaking of creativity one might try AREN"T

[musho3210]

ok i'll get 2 visi-therm stealths, saves some money and i can easily hide it with some plants.

[Octavarium]

Honestly...my visitherm does an awesome job keeping my discus tank dead on at 86. Highly recommend.

[musho3210]

ive used visi-therms before (infact using it now in my 20 gallon) and i like it, i was just wondering if an inline heater would be better but i guess i should just stick to visi-therms.

[PDX-PLT]

I got an inline for my new tank, based on recommendations from some people who had them, and the fact it's one less thing to hang in the tank.

I also like the fact that it has an electronic temperature sensor, which drives a seperate internal relay that turns power to the heating element on and off.

You read alot about heater failures, either stuck on or stuck off. Given how most of them are designed, it's not surprising. The problem is that it is real easy to design and build a cheap heater that mostly-sorta works, so that's how most of them are built - what do you want for 10-15 bucks? They use a simple bimetal switch to both sense the temperature, and switch the power on and off. But since the thing that senses temperature also experiences the arcing and on/off transients from switching a couple of hundred watts of power, it doesn't surprise me that so many of them seem to go bad in short order. I also wonder if the recent trend to mount them horizontally has some effect on reliability. The manufacturer may not have done much testing on them with the contacts operating in the horizontal configuration.

[Que]

The manufacturer may not have done much testing on them with the contacts operating in the horizontal configuration.

If they haven't then they are not very good engineers.

Q

[sunjwd]

Hi, I notice that Marineland offers the Visi-therm Stealth and the Visi-therm Deluxe. Both are highly rated.

Does anyone have experience with the older Visi-therm heaters? (Looks like a Deluxe, but the top control knob is little different.) They have them on sale on eBay for a discount so I wonder if they are good too.