Would the heater in the fuge be enough?

[phishphood]

So I have a ~3.5g fuge attached to a 20L and was wondering if a 150W heater in there will be enough. Right now the heater is in the display, and has been, and my temp holds pretty stable. The fuge is fed through a minijet 404 on max, so 108gph - head of 6" or so. Think it would be enough flow to keep the temp up? I might replace the pump w/ a mj400 if I can fix the bubble problem..

 

[sfsuphysics]

While the heater there should heat the rest of the tank without problems, I would worry about the small size of the fuge as it might get overly hot near the heater so could cook some things in there.

 

[GreshamH]

If the heaters probe is in the fuge it wouldn't get too hot for the fuge. Heaters don't get hotter as they get bigger, they just get bigger

I would worry about pump getting clogged and tank temp dropping.

 

[phishphood]

Well, at the moment I'm still using the built in temp control (eek). I know, I know, I'll get a ranco soon enough.

you think a clogged pump has that great of a chance of happening? it's in an overflow box with a little plastic grid on the top to filter out large chunks of "stuff"

 

[A_Lee]

Maybe you can consider using two heaters

 

[phishphood]

The whole idea is to try to get them out of my display...

 

[GreshamH]

[quote author=phishphood link=topic=6518.msg83658#msg83658 date=1235422249]
Well, at the moment I'm still using the built in temp control (eek). I know, I know, I'll get a ranco soon enough.

you think a clogged pump has that great of a chance of happening? it's in an overflow box with a little plastic grid on the top to filter out large chunks of "stuff"
[/quote]

Wouldn't have mentioned it had I not thought it should be a concern. Power goes out, pump fails to start. Pump slows down with build up of gunk, tank doesn't keep temp. Animal makes it past all obstacles and partially or fully blocks pump. Etc etc. That being said, I was just giving you stuff to worry about My heater is in my sump, so same deal basically

 

[phishphood]

Heh. So the usual, covering all the bases. I've run it through multiple power loss tests etc, etc. I was just worried about the flow being sufficient enough to maintain the heat.

 

[GreshamH]

That was a worry of mine as well. It looks like it'll be under 5x turn over at top performance with no head. I bet it'll be lke 3x turn (an hour) over in the long run and IMO/IMe that isn't enought o hold heat in cold conditions. What extremes are we talking about? bedroom 65 degrees, basement 50?

 

[phishphood]

Living room corner with 2 exterior walls in an apt complex? Ambient temp is usually ~60-65.

Not worth much, but the fuge is almost totally enclosed (w/ lid) and display has a full hood with about a 30x4" opening along the back. Not much airflow back there yet.

Would a 100W or 75W in the display be adequate?