Is It Better To Have A Heater At Both Ends Of A Tank?

[jarthel]

like in a 4ft tank with the heater at both ends, the water is more evenly heated compared to 1. It is good for redundancy as well.

right?

thank you

 

[mattlee]

i think anything 4ft+ its a good idea to have 2 heaters, i have 2 in my 4ft 2 x 200w. if one stops working then the other is going to supply almost enough heat to keep the tank going. 1 x watt per litre is supposed to be the output rate. mine is 240 litres so a single 200w heater isnt ideal but better than nothing. if you only have 1 300w heater that breaks for example there will be no heat at all which could be very bad depending on how long its broken for before its replaced. on the other side if a heater decides to go full bore on its own then too high a wattage one will fry your fish so dont get too big ones...
it will also help keep a more even heat distribution as you said

 

[grumpysteve]

IMO the only real reason to have 2 heaters is incase one of them breaks. a heater takes quite a while to heat the water, and the movement of the water means the tank will be evenly heated (unless there isn't much water movement, obviously). water doesn't cool down quick enough to have much of a benefit from having a heater at each end. although the only extra cost is buying the second heater in the first place (it wont cost any more to run because they heaters wont come on unless they need to, and if one heater is sufficient to heat the tank to the desired temp. neither of the heaters will need to be on for excessive amounts of time, if that makes sense?) it is all a matter of opinion though. you could just put one heater in the middle of the tank if you're worried about one end of the tank getting cooler

 

[mattlee]

this time of year its suprising how quick water cools down

 

[grumpysteve]

but heaters have a thermostat, so they turn on when the water gets below a certain temp. they're designed to keep the water at a steady temperature....
ideally you should have a thermometer at each end of the tank, that will tell you if the temp is changing from one end of the tank to the other enough to warrant needing 2 heaters.

or you could put the 1 heater in the middle of the tank

 

[mattlee]

but a thermostat is no good on a defective heater is it..........? if the heater stops working for what ever reason then the water will cool down and the longer its left defective the colder the water will get. simples! get 2 heaters 1 breaks you still have 1 heating the water.

 

[grumpysteve]

i know, i'm not disagreeing with you, just saying that you don't NEED 2 filters if you have 1 that is adequate. sorry if it came across the wrong way!

it also depends on the volume of the tank, a 4ft 240 litre tank wont need as much heat as a 4ft 400 litre. if yours is one of the bigger tanks then ideally you should have 2, but its not essential