External heaters - what am I missing?

[dinolino]

Hi folks, first time poster here.
I'm relatively new to the hobby - had a simple 60L community tank for a couple of years and now in the process of upgrading to a 120L with an external filter (Fluval 107). I hate the way heaters look inside tanks, and have been looking at external in-line heaters, e.g. the JBL Protemp e300. It seems like a great solution to me, but I can't find much info about them online, and am now wondering why they're not more popular - what am I missing? Is there a reason everyone seems to use the internal submersible heaters?
Thanks in advance for your knowledge/experience!

 

[Wills]

Hi welcome to the forum You are not alone in hating how heaters and equipment look!

External heaters are often more expensive than internals and also need an extra bit of work to fit them into the external filter pipes. I've also heard about a few models being a bit unreliable in terms of leaks at the seals.

The best way round I've found is to get the Oase Thermo filters either Biomasters or Filtosmarts as they have the heater in the canister filter. Ehiem do a range similar as well. Worth the investment if you want to cut down the equipment in tank. An other option is if you have a black background get the most minimal looking heater possible, I've never quite found a black rectangle but something like that would be great just to blend in - I don't understand why brands feel the need to put colourful logos and switches on things.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

There are basically 3 options when it comes to heaters"
1. In or on the tank.
2. In a filter.
3. Inline external.

Now, lets consider what sort of tanks and equipment is mostly used by hobbyists and why.

1. Most folks have one tank and they usually end up with a hang on filter and an in tank heaters.
2. Some folks get hang-ons with the heater inside the filter. Something I consider a poor concept.
3. Canister filters cost more than other types of filters so are nowhere near as popular as cheaper options. Some canisters have built in heaters. Again a poor concept imo.
4. Inline heaters must have a method of circulating tank water through them. Most often this is done in concert with a canister. However, it is possible to power an incline heater wusing a pump or powerhead. I cannot imagine why one would choose this method.

Yhe above said I can report that I have 3 canister running. All three have Hydor inline heaters. One of these heaters had been on the same canister now for about 20 years before I had to replace it. This is superb performance compared to the other options I have used. I have had two heater failures where the heater got stuck full on and wiped out a lot of fish very fast. The Hydor that failed stopped working and no fish died. I even have a Hydor NIB on the shelf as a backup. I used to have 2 but I used one

I can also say that in my 150 gal. I have an in tank heater in addition to the one on the canister. But that filter is too small by itself to keep that tank warm enough. The canister is also not sufficient for that size tank and there is an AquaClear 110 and an old H.O.T. Magnum also filtering the tank.

Imo the only reliable heaters I have owned, and I have tried a lot of different brands, are my inline Hydors. In the old days the Ebo-Jaegers were good heaters. I had one run great for 20+ years. But that is very rare for any in tank heaters to last these days. Ebo was bought out years ago.

Fortunately, I discovered heater controllers and to date they have never failed me. They only protect against an overheat, not against a total failure of the heater. I do not use them with my inlines, but I do have them in use with a lot of my in tank heaters especially for my most expensive fish.

p.s. Having just read Wills post I would add this. I was taught early on in my hobby years by a gent with over 50 years in the business and the hobby. He hated hoses on tanks and he taught me always to use hose clamps. I use them on every single hose connection involving water. So, with a canister filter and inline heating is use 6 hose clamps. One each in the in and out hoses at the canister, The another clamp on the intake and the spraybar hose connections, Finally, both ends of the inline heater are clamped as well.

I also use plastic style clamps on air lines. I do not use them on the individual air lines that go into the tank, but I use them on the bigger hoses where I have central air. So there are clamps on the main feed hoses where they come out of the air prump and then where they enter the manifolds. If the output gets split, both parts get the clamps.

 

[dinolino]

There are basically 3 options when it comes to heaters"
1. In or on the tank.
2. In a filter.
3. Inline external.

Now, lets consider what sort of tanks and equipment is mostly used by hobbyists and why.

1. Most folks have one tank and they usually end up with a hang on filter and an in tank heaters.
2. Some folks get hang-ons with the heater inside the filter. Something I consider a poor concept.
3. Canister filters cost more than other types of filters so are nowhere near as popular as cheaper options. Some canisters have built in heaters. Again a poor concept imo.
4. Inline heaters must have a method of circulating tank water through them. Most often this is done in concert with a canister. However, it is possible to power an incline heater wusing a pump or powerhead. I cannot imagine why one would choose this method.

Yhe above said I can report that I have 3 canister running. All three have Hydor inline heaters. One of these heaters had been on the same canister now for about 20 years before I had to replace it. This is superb performance compared to the other options I have used. I have had two heater failures where the heater got stuck full on and wiped out a lot of fish very fast. The Hydor that failed stopped working and no fish died. I even have a Hydor NIB on the shelf as a backup. I used to have 2 but I used one

I can also say that in my 150 gal. I have an in tank heater in addition to the one on the canister. But that filter is too small by itself to keep that tank warm enough. The canister is also not sufficient for that size tank and there is an AquaClear 110 and an old H.O.T. Magnum also filtering the tank.

Imo the only reliable heaters I have owned, and I have tried a lot of different brands, are my inline Hydors. In the old days the Ebo-Jaegers were good heaters. I had one run great for 20+ years. But that is very rare for any in tank heaters to last these days. Ebo was bought out years ago.

Fortunately, I discovered heater controllers and to date they have never failed me. They only protect against an overheat, not against a total failure of the heater. I do not use them with my inlines, but I do have them in use with a lot of my in tank heaters especially for my most expensive fish.

p.s. Having just read Wills post I would add this. I was taught early on in my hobby years by a gent with over 50 years in the business and the hobby. He hated hoses on tanks and he taught me always to use hose clamps. I use them on every single hose connection involving water. So, with a canister filter and inline heating is use 6 hose clamps. One each in the in and out hoses at the canister, The another clamp on the intake and the spraybar hose connections, Finally, both ends of the inline heater are clamped as well.

I also use plastic style clamps on air lines. I do not use them on the individual air lines that go into the tank, but I use them on the bigger hoses where I have central air. So there are clamps on the main feed hoses where they come out of the air prump and then where they enter the manifolds. If the output gets split, both parts get the clamps.

This is really helpful, thank you! I'll definitely look into the Hydor inline heater. Do you by any chance know if it would be suitable to work with the Fluval 107 canister filter (550L/h)? I read somewhere that one of the inline heaters needed a much higher flow to function properly so a bit nervous about that.

 

[Slaphppy7]

I used a Hydor for years in conjunction with an Eheim canister; it finally failed, and at least in the States, they are no longer available, sadly.

Not sure if they are still available in the UK...

 

[dinolino]

I used a Hydor for years in conjunction with an Eheim canister; it finally failed, and at least in the States, they are no longer available, sadly.

Not sure if they are still available in the UK...

they seem to be - i just ordered one online!

 

[Byron]

My third canister was an Eheim Pro II with a heating element at the base. I bought this filter/heater is 1998, and it ran continuously (save for being turned off during water changes and cleaning of course) until I tore the tank down in 2019 to move, when I gave it to someone with the tank (a 70g). It had never failed, and the water temperature never varied more than 2 degrees from the set temperature. I call that good value, very good value for 22 years. It avoided having two heaters in the tank. And it was a reliable as any could possibly be.

My other tanks had internal heaters, can't remember the brand now, but they were just as reliable though the water temperature was not as st4ady as in the tank with the Pro II. I had two or three 50w heaters fail, so I always used higher wattage heaters which do seem to be more reliable.

 

[10 Tanks]

Hi folks, first time poster here.
I'm relatively new to the hobby - had a simple 60L community tank for a couple of years and now in the process of upgrading to a 120L with an external filter (Fluval 107). I hate the way heaters look inside tanks, and have been looking at external in-line heaters, e.g. the JBL Protemp e300. It seems like a great solution to me, but I can't find much info about them online, and am now wondering why they're not more popular - what am I missing? Is there a reason everyone seems to use the internal submersible heaters?
Thanks in advance for your knowledge/experience!

Hello. Does your tank setup even require a heater? You may be keeping fish that don't require one. Good heaters are expensive. Check the temperature requirements of your fish. I keep several, larger fish tanks and my house stays warm enough that I don't need to heat the water in any of my fish tanks, save just one that's outdoors.

10 Tanks (Now 11)

 

[Colin_T]

You could get a trickle filter/ sump to hold heaters and other equipment you don't want in the main tank.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

The Hydor inlines come in 2 wattages--> 200 and 300. The 200w comes in two options based on the diameter of the hoses one uses. These are a 12mm and a 16 mm hose. The 300w only offers the 16mm size. These are the sizes of the hoses used on most Eheim canisters. I actually bought a couple of spare Hydors when they were on sale some time back. I finally used one on my oldest Hydor which finally failed after about 20 years in continuous use. So I still have one more NIB on the shelf (I also have one Eheim Pro II 2028 NIB on the shelf as well, the 2026 on the shelf has already been used for spare parts as I have 3 of these running.)

It is also possible to run the inline heaters using either a power head or a small pump rather than in concert with a canister filter.

I never liked the concept of putting a heater inside a filter. My reasoning was simple. Firstly, I would rather use that space for more media rather than a heater. Second, I can buy any brand and size heater I want to use in a tank or a sump. With the ones designed to be used in a canister there is only one size heater that will work/fit. My feeling is that a filter is designed to hold media which is where the bacteria colonize. The more media available the more bacteria one can have. Of course the amount of bacteria is always dependent on the ammonia levels available. Finally, I keep and breed some pretty pricey plecos. They need warm water and on their tanks I use a separate heater controller to insure I don't make fish soup if a heater fails by getting stuck full one. This is something I had happen twice before I wised up on using controllers (I have 12 now). Both times it killed fish.

I distrust all in tank heaters and usually buy the ones on sale. In all the years of buying different brands there is only one that I regret because they are basically useless and very unreliable. Plus they fail to go on when one places them horizontally. The brand to avoid like the plague is Aquarium Masters. I got these from kensfish.com who still sells them. I have bought many $1,000s worth of equipment and tanks over the years, but I have only ever left one review of a product in all that time. That was for the Aquarium Masters Heaters. I stated DO NOT BUY. But kensfish has either removed the review or never posted it. It may be the model I did review is no longer one they offer. I bought several sizes.

Kensfish has not been owned by Ken for a number of years. He sold the business some time ago and I now buy very little from them.

 

[Mikeyboy123]

No idea about external filters, but I am totally with you in not wanting to see the equipment in my tanks. You can try arrangements of wood and/or rocks and/or plants to obscure them or there's something like this:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Superfish-Heater-Cover-aquariums-150-300W/dp/B07YYGT2HM

Comes in three sizes. You can mount it with suckers in the rear corner and the heater slots inside. Or, like I do, you can have it slightly away from the rear corner and I then put my mini internal filter between the heater cover and the rear of the tank, so the filter is obscured from view as well.

Word of warning though, this is made from painted ceramic and the paint does gradually come off. It's not a huge problem and I've not noticed any ill effects, but I've had one for about two years in one of my tanks and the colour of the underlying is showing through her and there.

 

[dinolino]

Hello. Does your tank setup even require a heater? You may be keeping fish that don't require one. Good heaters are expensive. Check the temperature requirements of your fish. I keep several, larger fish tanks and my house stays warm enough that I don't need to heat the water in any of my fish tanks, save just one that's outdoors.

10 Tanks (Now 11)

yes definitely need one! i've ordered the hydor, fingers crossed it works well.

 

[dinolino]

No idea about external filters, but I am totally with you in not wanting to see the equipment in my tanks. You can try arrangements of wood and/or rocks and/or plants to obscure them or there's something like this:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Superfish-Heater-Cover-aquariums-150-300W/dp/B07YYGT2HM

Comes in three sizes. You can mount it with suckers in the rear corner and the heater slots inside. Or, like I do, you can have it slightly away from the rear corner and I then put my mini internal filter between the heater cover and the rear of the tank, so the filter is obscured from view as well.

Word of warning though, this is made from painted ceramic and the paint does gradually come off. It's not a huge problem and I've not noticed any ill effects, but I've had one for about two years in one of my tanks and the colour of the underlying is showing through her and there.

yeah i like this option too as a backup! if i dont get on well with the hydor inline external heater i'll give this a go.

 

[dinolino]

Thanks everyone for the input, I tried to install a Hydor inline heater and have now discovered some good reasons not to!
The filter canister I have (Fluval 107) has a ribbed outlet tube, which does not connect to the Hydor heater. I tried a connector to link them (among other things), but connecting to the ribbed tube didn't create a proper seal, so felt very dangerous. Basically external gadgets = more potential for leaks! I have given up on the idea, got a regular internal heater and will resell the Hydor heater on ebay.