Help me choose wattage of heater

[DylFunk]

hi, i have just got a 60 gallon aquaruim from my friend but did not get a heater to go with it since he never kept fish that needed heating. basically i just want to know what kind of wattage heater i should get. the guy at the lfs recommended a 150 watt but i like to confirm things the lfs employees say.

 

[The-Wolf]

hi, i have just got a 60 gallon aquaruim from my friend but did not get a heater to go with it since he never kept fish that needed heating. basically i just want to know what kind of wattage heater i should get. the guy at the lfs recommended a 150 watt but i like to confirm things the lfs employees say.

to get a perfect answer click here

 

[DylFunk]

thanks.

 

[Bol]

The heater wattages produced by that calculator seem pretty low to me. /shrug

Unless the wattage caluculated is something like 'average' or 'RMS', and not the suggested rating for a heater.

 

[The-Wolf]

The heater wattages produced by that calculator seem pretty low to me. /shrug

Unless the wattage caluculated is something like 'average' or 'RMS', and not the suggested rating for a heater.

that is the absolute min needed to keep the tank at that temp

 

[ger87410]

When buying a heater the safest bet is to buy larger then you need. I got a 55g w/ a 300w heater and it will raise the tank more then 7 degrees above room temp.

 

[yhbae]

Get TWO less powerful heaters instead one one powerful one. It is safer and it regulates temperatures better on long tanks...

 

[Bol]

that is the absolute min needed to keep the tank at that temp

Well, yes, but is that the minimum power that the "average aquarium heater" will actually use, or is it the minimum power rating for a suggested heater?

I'm sort of guessing it's the first one, and that number should probably be roughly doubled to get a heater size. That is, if the calculation comes up with 150W, you should probably have heaters rated at a total of 300W.

(Personally, for a 60g and "normal" room temperatures, I would get two 150W heaters).

 

[csr mel]

why would you want an oversize heater? id say to get around the minimum, that way if for some reason the thermostat fails and keeps the heat running continously, you will have less risk of frying youre fish.

 

[cutechic]

The way I was told to calculated wattage needed was volume of tank (in gallons) x 6. So, for a 60 gallon tank you would need approx. 360W. As some of the others said, it is best to get two 150W heaters instead of one 300W heater.

 

[yhbae]

What you need totally depends on the worst case scenario of your ambiant temperature of your room where the tank is placed. If it stays constant all the time at 77F, then you don't need a heater... On the other extreme case, if the room can drop by another 27F, then you need around 500w worth of heaters.

So how cold does your room get?