Best Saltwater Aquarium Heater? You choose!

[Blue Spot Octopus]

If room is temperature controlled that is half the battle, but it depends on what temp you keep the room at. Heaters use a lot of electricity and are expensive to operate, so budget is always important, the electric rates vary greatly in the states, obviously we do not know what your rates are. Do you have natural gas, is it cheap?

 

[Impetus]

If room is temperature controlled that is half the battle, but it depends on what temp you keep the room at. Heaters use a lot of electricity and are expensive to operate, so budget is always important, the electric rates vary greatly in the states, obviously we do not know what your rates are. Do you have natural gas, is it cheap?

Its a country house and air-to-air heat pump is the cheapest available option.

 

[Mark Gray]

Orphek, Radion and other aquarium led cost 4k USD for an aquarium this size.

Diesel generator cost 2k USD.

If I have spend 20k USD on an aquarium Im willing to spend 2k USD or 10% on security.

You also might look at heat exchanger units I would not be confident that the floor heating will do it. I really like my Innovative Marine Helio I believe they make a 300 gallon unit and the come with a 5 year warranty. Good luck post pictures

 

[trevorhiller]

I'm researching some options for a tank build that I am working on. About 200 gallons total.

I love the heat exchanger idea - mainly because it keeps the heating element out of the tank. Has anyone used one of these on a tank this size? I know most use them on large systems tied to their water heater.

Also looking at the Cygnet Mini by AquaLogic - I can't find much information on that one though, but my aqualogic controller is nice.

Edit:

It seems there are small point of use electric water heaters as well. I know Reefgrrl on YouTube uses one with a PEX Loop. I don’t want a massive loop of pex in my sump, but this could also be a potential option to keep the AC electricity out of the tank with a heat exchanger. Hmmmm…..

 

[Lebowski_]

This won’t be popular but I switched to Aqueon presets with a temp controller, and I’ve been really impressed.

They have such a small form factor that they are one of the few non ceramic options for people with built in sumps. They are not expensive but seem to be very accurate and the auto shut off chip does work I recently found out.

The low price allows you to run two without spending way over your budget. Multiple heaters + controller eliminates some of the biggest risk with “lower end” heaters.

If space and price weren’t options, I would just go with one of the Helio dual heaters and call it a day.