55gal heater ?

[Flowerhorn916]

I have read several things that reccomend 2x 200 watt heaters for a 55 I have a 120 watt and a 200 watt in one of mine and it works fine my ? is can I put 1 500 watt heater in a 55-65 gal tank and set it for say 80 is it gonna get hotter and fry my fish? Any pro's or cons to a set up like this? The reson I ask is I am getting redy to set up my old 65 that I have no used in a long time and I need a heater I can get 1 500 watt cheaper than 2x200 watt what do you guys think.
Thanks-

 

[schiejr]

The max recommendation for interior tanks has been 5 watts/gallon IME. This also tends to be more than needed in a covered tank that only needs to be raised 5 degrees for example.

The advantage of 2 smaller heaters is redundancy-if one fails the other will moderate the temp. or heat the tank up more slowly which gives you a chance to catch the failure. If a 500 watt heater stuck on in a 65, you would have fish soup in a jiffy.

The wattage required depends on the required temp. rise to be maintained. If your 65 was at my house, 300 watts total would be more than enough.

I remember seeing a formula once to calculate required wattage based on temps-perhaps someone else will be familiar with it.