migs Posted April 6, 2011 Share Posted April 6, 2011 I have been doing biocubes, big reef tank, and now pico tank for about 4 or 5 years now... and I never stop to ask if you really need a heater. I was always told I need one so I always purchased one, but we had two heater incidents recently - one was stuck on and killed 5 cichlids in a freshwater tank and the other heater cracked and killed 3 saltwater fish in a biocube.... so i started thinking if you really need one? I looked online at liveaquaria.com, and all the inverts, coral and fish said they required temperatures from 72 deg to 78 deg... I am run a 5 gal pico (cycling right now) without a heater and the temperature is 74 deg over night to 75 in the day as the ambient temperature stays the same... do you really need a heater? maybe in winter? but anything really require a temperature of 79 deg or 80 deg? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobR Posted April 6, 2011 Share Posted April 6, 2011 As long as your temp stays in the acceptable range, then I don't see why you would need one. My tank has been up for about 3 months now (so not a lot of SW exp), but I have not been running a heater either and my tank stays at 78-80 pretty consistently. At one point I spoke with Shane, at fishy business, and he also said that it is not necessary to run a heater. Of course it probably would not hurt to have one just in case for winter if the temps really drop... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+ACampbell Posted April 6, 2011 Share Posted April 6, 2011 Depends on how much you use your homes heating/cooling. If the tank where in my house, it would have chiller/heater combo because my homes ambient temps would affect the tank adversely. I'm sure caferacer will get on his soapbox soon about how bad heaters are, but it really just depends on your situation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamesL Posted April 6, 2011 Share Posted April 6, 2011 Before the past winter, I took the heater out of my 75g, and have not looked back. But as Andrew said, it just depends on your house heating/cooling/lights/etc. I would be interested as LED's become more popular, if this causes the need for heaters again in those that do not run them (I have LED's for my dawn/dusk lighting, but MH for my main lights). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hasufax Posted April 6, 2011 Share Posted April 6, 2011 Actually heaters may be needed more in the summer than in winter! In winter people tend to keep their houses warmer, and in summer with the a/c on the air temp can get fairly chilly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robb in Austin Posted April 6, 2011 Share Posted April 6, 2011 I'm in the "no" camp. We keep our home in the 73-74 range year round, and between my return pump and my reactor pump my tank stays at 77-78. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaJMasta Posted April 6, 2011 Share Posted April 6, 2011 Unless you have a chiller and it's on a lot I wouldn't even think about loosing the heater... unless you keep your house between 76 and 80 all year around with an accurate thermostat. 72 is too low, are you sure the animals you're looking at online are tropical and not temperate? Or maybe they're found at deeper depths? If you've got a large tank, a closed top, warm lighting, and some sort of chiller now, then you can probably deal without a heater. But in a small tank you'd see a lot of fluctuation, and in an open top tank I'd expect there's too much heat loss potential there after the lights are off. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Jakedoza Posted April 6, 2011 Share Posted April 6, 2011 IMO.... Smaller tanks will go through temperature changes much faster than larger tanks because there is less water to the system. Any small tank will go through changes faster than larger tanks... thus the reason they can be harder to keep. If your home stays a pretty constant temperature I do not see why you would need one, but here lately we have had to run the heat at night and the A/C in the day time. I have a big tank and do not run a heater or a chiller with no problem. The temp stays around 78-80 according to the digital thermometer pretty much all the time. On a smaller tank I probably would use a heater, just to help with temperature swings. But, to each their own. I don't think there is a right or wrong way here.. Just whatever works for you and it also depends on what you have in your tank. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Hydro Posted April 6, 2011 Share Posted April 6, 2011 If you use a heater, which I do, you should use the kind that has a remote stainless steel lead that has the electrical components on the plug instead of being inside the tank. Because they are stainless steel there is little chance it will crack so most likely it will never short out and kill your tank. My heater has no controller built in, I use my reefkeeper to control it. Look for a high quality heater that has good review online and you would be much better off. If I put my hands in my tank and the temp is around 75 it feels cold to me....if its 80 degrees it feels watm to me. I keep my tank at 78 degrees which feels comfortable to me and hopefully this translates to comfort for my livestock too. There is certainly no science in that observation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaJMasta Posted April 6, 2011 Share Posted April 6, 2011 If I put my hands in my tank and the temp is around 75 it feels cold to me....if its 80 degrees it feels watm to me. I keep my tank at 78 degrees which feels comfortable to me and hopefully this translates to comfort my livestock too. There is certainly no science in that observationn I notice it the same way 80 and over is noticably too high, below about 77 feels cold. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timfish Posted April 8, 2011 Share Posted April 8, 2011 My experience most tanks won't need them since most of the tanks I've seen run warmer than the rooms they're in. From my experience the submersible heaters with internal thermostats often fail after just one or two seasons risking overheating the tank. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+mcallahan Posted April 8, 2011 Share Posted April 8, 2011 It really depends on how hot your tank runs and how warm/hot you keep your house. Here's the craziest advice I've heard about heaters/chillers: "just turn your heater all the way up and let the chiller handle your tank's temperature regulation" THERE'S A GOOD IDEA!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wizardx322 Posted April 8, 2011 Share Posted April 8, 2011 It really depends on how hot your tank runs and how warm/hot you keep your house. Here's the craziest advice I've heard about heaters/chillers: "just turn your heater all the way up and let the chiller handle your tank's temperature regulation" THERE'S A GOOD IDEA!! lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+o0zarkawater Posted April 9, 2011 Share Posted April 9, 2011 I use one in the winter because I keep my house closer to 60 degrees, I just prefer the cold. With the ambient house temp being this cold, my tank has dropped to as low as 65 at night. I use a titanium heater with its own digital temp probe, AND plug it into a ReefKeeper with its own temp probe for double redundancy. I've never had any livestock die off, or look stressed from my temp swings, which can get as high has 84 sometimes during the summer. I really need to build a new hood with exhaust fans. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill B Posted April 9, 2011 Share Posted April 9, 2011 I think the answer is 'yes', you need a heater. It's just a matter of whether you use a small heating element which you put in you tank or you use your home H/AC. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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