Like said above, If running 2 heaters, I'd pretty much split the wattage between the two. If one fails, the other will keep some heat in the tank.
Calibrating a Marineland Precision Heater
- Thread starter apastuszak
- Start date
I bought a Finnex 800w from amazon 2+ years ago. It went south recently and for the price of a phone call they replaced it with a new unit AND refunded the initial cost. Color me amazed.
Here is one of the biggest secrets in this hobby. No heater is really reliabble. Any and all of then can and do fail. This is not to inplun that none of them work, but that a lot will fail. There is no way to know. I am going into year 19 with a lot of tanks. i have use all sorts of different brand heaters over the years. I have had two fail full on an boil fish. On destroyed a 19 fish breeding colony of L236 oplecos and about 30 offspring. The fish in that tank had a value greater than the 60 odd heaters i have bough over the years.
On the other hand I have an old style Ebo-Jaeger heater from before they were bought out that is still working fine since about 2003. In 2006 the tank was converted to a zebra pleco breeding tank and it is all fine and dandy today with the same heater.
I now have heater controllers on all tanks with the more valuable fish. This way there is a backup to a stuck on heater to prevent making fish soup. Pretty much I now buy cheap heaters, expecting them to fail eventually and they do. But I can save a tank from no heat v.s. one with too much. That is the point of the controllers.
Here is an amusing story re controllers. DrsForsterSmith.com sold the inexpensive Azoo mini-controller which could handle up to 800 watts. They sold for about $25. On a phone call to them about another matter last year I asked if they would give me a discount if I bought 10 of them, I was told it was against policy to do so, So I passed. When they were acquired by a conglomerate, FosterSmith died and the remnant was rolled into the Live Aquaria site. When I discovered this, I also discovered a huge clearance sale. The Azoo unit was offered for $12.50 and I bought five. I would have gladly paid more for the 10 less than a year earlier. They had sold out as by the time I decided to get more soon after
The point of the clearance sale appears to have been to reduce substantially the types and brands of equipment they sell. I now tend to shop elsewhere to find the stuff they kicked to the curb. It appears to have been a fair amount of the better quality more sophisticated items. They alls appear to want to sell their conglomerate's new house brand, , Imagitarium. I do not buy this brand for anything. Others should decide for themselves if they want to do so.
I am lucky, i got into the hobby before all the consolidation withig the industry which brought about a quality decline almost across the board. If you own a brand of folter you got in say 2003 and then had to replace in the last year or two, I am sure you know about what I am talking I can tell you I have a number of filters bought between 201 and 3005 which are still running well having been in use continuously.
On the other hand I have an old style Ebo-Jaeger heater from before they were bought out that is still working fine since about 2003. In 2006 the tank was converted to a zebra pleco breeding tank and it is all fine and dandy today with the same heater.
I now have heater controllers on all tanks with the more valuable fish. This way there is a backup to a stuck on heater to prevent making fish soup. Pretty much I now buy cheap heaters, expecting them to fail eventually and they do. But I can save a tank from no heat v.s. one with too much. That is the point of the controllers.
Here is an amusing story re controllers. DrsForsterSmith.com sold the inexpensive Azoo mini-controller which could handle up to 800 watts. They sold for about $25. On a phone call to them about another matter last year I asked if they would give me a discount if I bought 10 of them, I was told it was against policy to do so, So I passed. When they were acquired by a conglomerate, FosterSmith died and the remnant was rolled into the Live Aquaria site. When I discovered this, I also discovered a huge clearance sale. The Azoo unit was offered for $12.50 and I bought five. I would have gladly paid more for the 10 less than a year earlier. They had sold out as by the time I decided to get more soon after
The point of the clearance sale appears to have been to reduce substantially the types and brands of equipment they sell. I now tend to shop elsewhere to find the stuff they kicked to the curb. It appears to have been a fair amount of the better quality more sophisticated items. They alls appear to want to sell their conglomerate's new house brand, , Imagitarium. I do not buy this brand for anything. Others should decide for themselves if they want to do so.
I am lucky, i got into the hobby before all the consolidation withig the industry which brought about a quality decline almost across the board. If you own a brand of folter you got in say 2003 and then had to replace in the last year or two, I am sure you know about what I am talking
I can tell you I have a number of filters bought between 201 and 3005 which are still running well having been in use continuously.
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I have to agree that a MAJOR quality decline happened with consolidation. But there has also been a price decrease, relative to inflation, as well as in general. Ehiem Jäger heaters are significantly cheaper (at least online) than the Ebo Jäger heaters that preceded it. But their quality is not the same.
I have old Aquarium Systems VisiTherm heaters from the late 80s - early 90s that are still working. The Marineland line of VisiTherm heaters I hear nothing but problems about. Looking on Marineland's website, it looks like those heaters were discontinued.
It seems Aquarium Systems still makes the old VisiTherm heaters, just not in the US: https://www.aquariumsystems.fr/en/aquatic/electrical/visitherm/
These heaters look identical to the ones I saw in the 80s. If I had to guess, Aquarium Systems pulled out of the US market and licensed their trademarks to Spectrum brands (owners of Tetra, Marineland, etc.)
I'd love to imports an Aquarium Systems heater, but I doubt they make one with a US power plug on it.
I have old Aquarium Systems VisiTherm heaters from the late 80s - early 90s that are still working. The Marineland line of VisiTherm heaters I hear nothing but problems about. Looking on Marineland's website, it looks like those heaters were discontinued.
It seems Aquarium Systems still makes the old VisiTherm heaters, just not in the US: https://www.aquariumsystems.fr/en/aquatic/electrical/visitherm/
These heaters look identical to the ones I saw in the 80s. If I had to guess, Aquarium Systems pulled out of the US market and licensed their trademarks to Spectrum brands (owners of Tetra, Marineland, etc.)
I'd love to imports an Aquarium Systems heater, but I doubt they make one with a US power plug on it.
