Filter With Built In Heater Question!

[mark1980]

Hi. I have just purchased a new 310L corner aquarium and need to buy a new external filter. I have been looking at the Eheim 2126 thermo. The cheapest I can find on the internet is £139.99 but I like the idea of not aving a heater in my tank.
My only concern is that it states that the heater has an output of 180W. Am I right to think that this wouldn't be sufficent to heat a 310L tank and an additional heater would have to be added?
I would appreciate any feedback before I go and buy one. Thanks, Mark

 

[spesh]

I'm curious about this too!

I think, maybe, that those heaters are more 'efficient' as the water runs directly over the heating element rather than it being encased in a glass tube as per the in tank counterparts. I've no idea if thats correct but to me it seems odd that they would sell a filter capable of xxx litres and not have it be able to heat the same.

I've got a 2028 filtering my 320L corner tank and its just fine, was thinking about turning to the thermo version to get the heater out of the tank so will be watching with interest!

 

[adamgreen240]

I think if you want an eheim thermo you should splash out on the pro 3 2180 - Brilliant filter !! Heat power is 500W

 

[tyyrlym]

That would give you 2.22 watts/gallon. This is definitely lower than most would recommend, 3-5 watt/gal but you can get away with it if the room you keep your fish in stays relatively warm. I'm not sure on the efficiency of placing the heater in the filter but given that you'll be constantly circulating water over it rather than relying on natural convection it might let you undersize your heater a bit.

 

[rabbut]

Get a Hydor to do exturnal heating. The exturnal filters with heaters are notoriously dodgy when it comes to sensors, with even Eheim apparently running into issues with them. Yes, moving the heater into the water flow will make the heating more "efficient" in the sense that the heat will be evenly distributed quicker, so the heater won't keep moving on and off when approaching the set temperature, as conventional internals will, so it will get to temperature quicker, and waste less power doing so as the tank looses heat in the process of the heat moving into the water colunm (not loosing heat while the theromstat detects the temperature of the tank, rather than that of the water arround it).

You would want a 300W heater for your tank under "normal" conditions. You can do less in some situations, will need more in others...

All the best
Rabbut

 

[waterdrop]

I agree with rabbut. I investigated the thermo versions of the Eheim Pro and Pro2 series and discovered that the problem is that if even small amounts of salt are present in the water then the sensors have trouble. I found this out from the mid-level eheim distributors themselves. A combined unit also presents a problem in that you are out a filter if you need to send it off for repair. I ended up deciding the Hydor Inline accomplished the same function in a better way and have been very happy with an Eheim Hydor combination.

~~waterdrop~~