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Airpump (and heater) recommendations - strong and silent (and reliable)

You’d be surprised what I use. I run Apexes and also have Ranco controllers and run redundant heaters (some systems with 3) so I actually use some really inexpensive heaters. I used to use more expensive heaters, but I had them fail more often than I’d like.

Surprisingly, I haven’t had a single one of these fail in three years out of ten or so units. I have used the 50/100/300W heaters.

Hitop 25W/50W/100W/300W Adjustable Aquarium Heater, Submersible Glass Water Heater for 5 – 70 Gallon Fish Tank (100W)
https://a.co/d/4OE59KZ
 
I run a Helio PTC 700 Watt and a Hygger 800W for redundancy. Both plugged into Apex to control and monitor. Temp has stayed between 78.1-78.3 consistently.
 
Jumping on the thread for heater recommendations.

My Finnex heater stopped working recently and looking for an alternative.
  • I have used the eheim jagger (glass) but they seem to be very fragile. Mine broke in the sump while cleaning.
  • Finnex titanium heaters - I had a three fail over the the past few years.
Anyone have experience with these for a 40g+20g sump tank? They are on the pricey side but does come with a 5 year warranty.
Helio 400 Watt PTC Smart Heater - [2 x 200W] Single Element

On a side note the Helio experiences from user reviews has mentioned the temp fluctuations are minimal. The debate is whether temp fluctuations are good/bad.
 
Last edited:
fishy408 said:
Jumping on the thread for heater recommendations.

My Finnex heater stopped working recently and looking for an alternative.
  • I have used the eheim jagger (glass) but they seem to be very fragile. Mine broke in the sump while cleaning.
  • Finnex titanium heaters - I had a three fail over the the past few years.
Anyone have experience with these for a 40g+20g sump tank? They are on the pricey side but does come with a 5 year warranty.
Helio 400 Watt PTC Smart Heater - [2 x 200W] Single Element

On a side note the Helio experiences from user reviews has mentioned the temp fluctuations are minimal. The debate is whether temp fluctuations are good/bad.
Click to expand...
I love jagers but I also leave them in my sump baffles so they never get dry or cleaned much. If you leave them alone they're pretty bulletproof.
 
fishy408 said:
Why not use the Helio heaters? Curious about the decision to go with Hygger.
Click to expand...
I'm guessing you mean, why not just use the helio. Everything I read says to have redundancy for heaters. The Hello should monitor itself and the Apex should be monitoring that. I travel a bunch so I want to be sure that if the Apex decides to shut down the Hello because of overheating then the Hygger is still operating to ensure a heated tank if I am out of town for an extended period of time. The Helio is set to 78 degrees and the Hygger is set to 77. It would only kick on if the Helio is offline and the temp dropped. I've had both kick on temporarily while doing water changes where the quick addition of 5-15 gallons of water into the sump drops the perceived temperature by the thermometer

At some point, I'll fully integrate the EcoFlow and Ecotech Battery Backups that I have on hand. I will also install the chiller but I've now passed the height of temperature extremes here in Castro Valley..
 
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