Aquarium heaters

[Jadzir]

Have been looking at some options to lessen the amount of equipment in my tanks.
With regards to heating the water I have come across a couple of options.
Would like people’s experience/ opinions on them please.
1. Canister filter with compartment for heater.
2. Inline heater that goes on the return hose to the tank.
Also any recommendations for specific brands.
Looking to do this with my 300 l and 145 l tanks.

Thanks

 

[Ch4rlie]

There are a couple of filters that incorporates the heater.

Oase BioMaster Thermo
And Juwel BioFlow internal filters

I have both of those and they work well.

I favour the Oase external as access is easier and has more compartment for filter media of your choice.

I nearly bought Hydor in-line heater a few years back but declined due to price and some reviews saying the quality was not that good and issues with them.

However there are new brands of in line heaters, aquael being one brand but have not tried those to be honest.

But for the money and your size of tanks I would go external filter with heater inside.

 

[Guyb93]

I just like to see the little red dot go on and off on my heater lol seriously it lets me know they are working

 

[Byron]

I cannot comment on present-day filter/heater units, but when I had my larger tanks (up until two years ago when I moved and had to downsize tanks) one of them was a 90g with an Eheim Pro II canister with a heating element. I bought that filter in 1998 and it ran continuously until I fore the tank down, in 2019, some 21 years. It never failed. And that tank had the most uniform heat of any tank I had, the others all with one or two heaters depending upon tank volume. The temperature was set at 25.5 and according to the digital thermometer at the opposite end of the tank, and a floating thermometer on the glass in the opposite corner behind the filter outflow, the tank temperature only varied by .2 degrees, from 25.3 to 25.7 the whole time I had it running. I believe the Pro 3 Eheim canisters have the option of the heating element. If I were in the market for a canister, this would be my choice without hesitation.

 

[alistairw]

I had a Hydor in line heater which was great, as the heated water got distributed really well. It wasn’t too tricky to fit but unfortunately it stopped working. I have never replaced it and just have your normal heating bar in the tank now.

Its on my list of things to look at as an upgrade, so I will watch this thread with interest!

 

[Jadzir]

There are a couple of filters that incorporates the heater.

Oase BioMaster Thermo
And Juwel BioFlow internal filters

I have both of those and they work well.

I favour the Oase external as access is easier and has more compartment for filter media of your choice.

I nearly bought Hydor in-line heater a few years back but declined due to price and some reviews saying the quality was not that good and issues with them.

However there are new brands of in line heaters, aquael being one brand but have not tried those to be honest.

But for the money and your size of tanks I would go external filter with heater inside.

Thanks for the response.
Have been looking at the oase thermo and will probably go with those.

 

[Ch4rlie]

I quite like the build quality of the Oase Biomaster Thermo (I have the 350) and the heater adjustment knob is easily adjustable from top of filter so no need to open up the filter to adjust heater.

And opening up the filter is fairly straightforward but the sponge media is in a separate compartment that’s easy to remove without actually opening the filter itself so you can rinse the sponge media during maintenances.

A well known aquascapist, George Farmer, uses these filter on his tanks and recommends them on his websites, that’s what swung it for me to buy those filters against other well known external filters.

 

[Jadzir]

Looked at the basic and the bio master.
The bio master is the one I will go with. Like the extra features.