# Extra heater



## ironspider (Dec 5, 2017)

My Eheim 200w heater just went out all of a sudden yesterday. I searched through my house and found that I didn't have an extra old one laying around, so I tried to get overnight shipping from Amazon but they didn't have one available until Friday. I thought local pet stores were closed but then realized Petco will do curbside pickup. The have the aqueon 200w available so I ordered that for curbside pickup this morning. I'd prefer the Eheim as the bad one was very good for years, so I'm thinking I'll just order it and keep the aqueon as a backup. The tank got down to 75 degrees before I used the heater from my little 10 gallon to switch back and forth. Does everyone keep a backup available?


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## fishboy75 (Jan 16, 2020)

Yes, but I have had multiple setups over the years. I usually have two in my tank in case one fails. What size tank is it?


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## SoccerMbunaAndShak (Apr 7, 2020)

I think aqueon heaters are good. I use them in all my tanks.


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## ironspider (Dec 5, 2017)

fishboy75 said:


> Yes, but I have had multiple setups over the years. I usually have two in my tank in case one fails. What size tank is it?


It's a 55g, I think two is overkill.


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## fishboy75 (Jan 16, 2020)

Agreed, for 55 and smaller. It is a good idea to have an extra laying around like you just found out. I will say I think most heaters today are **** compared to the ones being made in the 80's and 90's. I still have a few of those non- submersible ones that would screw onto your tank and use them on some of the smaller tanks. Ebo- Jager was the best submersible one, lasted forever and unbreakable. But they got bought out by Eheim and weren't the same. I had two 300 watt eheim on my 265 for the past 12 years and they worked pretty good for a number of years. I slacked on maintenance for a few years when my kids were younger and lost some interest in the hobby but kept the tank running. A couple months back I did a good water change and my interest peaked again. I had one of those stick on the outside thermometers but that hadn't worked in years so I bought a couple of the ones with probes from Amazon. The temperature was 76. I used to keep it at 78 religiously. So I played with both heaters and was able to consistently get the temp to stay at 79.2. Then one day I came home and the tank was at 82 and both heaters were still on so I was like wtf. After that I couldn't get either heater to stabilize so I wound up buying an 800 watt titanium heater with a temperature controller. Best purchase i have ever made. The tank stays at 78.6 with nothing for me to worry about. There is an alarm you can set that will alert you if the tank gets too hot. Mine is set to alert me if it gets to 82 but I haven't seen the temp go up past 78.6 or dip below 78.4. For bigger tanks, I would never use a regular heater again. Just went back to the website I bought it from and they make them as small as 50 watt so you can get them for smaller tanks. The prices are on par with the cost of an Eheim, you just have the added cost of the temperature controller which cost me $65. Well worth it imo, especially since I was replacing two heaters. One less piece of equipment in the tank and way more stability. Sorry for the rant but I'm a little bored right now haha.

Edit: For the record, I didn't use a curse word above. I guess you can't say C R A P on here haha


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## ironspider (Dec 5, 2017)

So I guess I'm a moron. After getting the new heater I started tinkering with the old one. There was nothing wrong with it! Apparently it got cold in the tank because the plug had somehow wiggled out and my attempts to mess with the temp control somehow got the temp set in the 60's, so of course the light wouldn't go on. I removed the new heater and put the Eheim back in and everything is fine. Now I have an extra emergency heater.


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