Tropical Fish Forums

[Arctic]

If I were to have two 250W heaters in my 55 gallon aquarium, could it reduce the overall effort required to heat the aquarium? The thermostat for my house is set for 62 degrees at night (11pm to 7am) and (sometimes) sends my water temperature down from 76 degrees to 72 degrees. On top of the added redundancy of heater, I would like to think that a second heater could keep the water temperature closer to 76 degrees at night.

[diademhill]

It certainly won't hurt to have two heaters running.

[Arctic]

I'll probably buy another heater for good measure. Although two heater can use more wattage than one, I guess the amount of time that both will be running could theoretically be reduced. The only reason why I knew the temperature dropped so low was because I woke up at 4am freezing; I wonder if it does that all the time though that would require me to stay up or wake up late/early.[/list]

[coryfan]

Perhaps pros and cons of having more watts than is needed for your tank. If I am not mistaken, higher watts means lower time the heater has to be on (and the heater has a longer lifespan?). But if there was ever a malfunction, the fish would probably get 'cooked'.

[nikelodeon79]

It is unlikely that both heaters would malfunction at once, so there really wouldn't be an increased likelihood of frying your fish with two heaters. In fact, many people feel that having two heaters that are under the recommended wattage actually increases their odds of avoiding fish deaths due to heater malfunction. It has been my experience, however, that even when under-wattage heaters fail, the water gets really hot, really fast and deaths can still result.

As far as the temp falling at night, it sounds like the lights in the aquarium are actually providing most of the heat.... are they incandescent or flourescent? Raising the fixture could prevent the water heating up so much.

It is a good idea to place a heater under/in a filter flow, or position an airstone underneath it to better distribute the heat.
_________________
Dumpster Tank
Nano Fish
Mbuna