New Heater

[Westwood]

Hello all,

I'm looking at buying a new heater for my aquarium, at the moment i only have a 50 watt heater to heat the whole tank a 25 gallon. I was thinking of buying a 150 watt heater, but is this too much?
So i was wondering can u have a too high of wattage on a tank? And what would the side effects be?
Thanks

 

[Ben.M]

For 25g I would think that 75-100w would be sufficient, 150w is too much really,

Ben.M

 

[Westwood]

I understand that it is too much, but are there any side effect of using a heater that is too powerful for the tank?

 

[Ben.M]

The higher the wattage the bigger the heater so it takes over the tank more, I would expect the due to the heater going on/off more often that the temperature would vary a lot more and if the thermostat did fail then you would defiantly have fried fish!

Ben.M

 

[Westwood]

Arhh ok i see why now! Thanks, so would it be better to have 2 x 50 watt or 1 x 100 watt as i already have a 50 watt.

Thanks again,

 

[Ben.M]

Well if you have 2 50w the you need more space and an extra plug socket but if 1 fails then you have a back up.
With 1 100w heater you wouldnt take up that much more room than with the current one, it would generally cost max. £5 more than the 50w, keep to just 1 plug socket and you get a spare 50w heater which you could either keep or sell to make some money back but if it fails then you dont have a back up.
There are pros and cons to both so it is up to you

Ben.M

 

[Westwood]

Ill have a think about it Thanks for all your help, ill see if there are any good looking ones at my lfs.

 

[Ben.M]

No problem

Ben.M