Heater placement?

[mx51]

So I have a 75 gallon reef ready tank that I bought 2 years ago with a stand (Aqueon brand) I am finally setting the tank up, I received all my equipment this week and my skimmer was to tall to get the cup off to clean it. So needless to say I just built a new stand. About a month or so ago pecto had there $1 per gallon sale so I picked up a 40b and a 29 gallon thinking 40b would be my sump and 29 QT but 40 was to big to fit in my stand. Now that I had to build a new stand I am going to make the 40 my sump. Question is I have 2 EHeim jäger 150 heaters should I put one in the refugium and one in the skimmer section or both in the fuge or both in the skimmer section? Just wondering as I will be building my new sump today? Thank you for any advise.

[Reefer54]

i keep 2 in my sump and one in my overflow. 1 500w and 2 300wheaters, my temp varies by no more than .5 degrees in a room that fluctuates 10 degrees plus day to night and an area that sees 30 plus degree shifts day to night.

make sure you get good titanium heaters....glass ones always break. i know somwone will chime in and disagree with that statement, but you will read a lot more stories about glass heater disasters than not. jm2c.

[SS_Sean]

If the water is moving through your sump relatively quickly, why would you heat the sump? That makes no sense to me.

[bnumair]

Originally Posted by SS_Sean

If the water is moving through your sump relatively quickly, why would you heat the sump? That makes no sense to me.

water is flowing in same ratio through ur sump as ur tank, if these 2 were not in sync you will have either sump overflow or tank.
So if the body of water is same and flowing in same proportion then it doesnt matter is the heater is in the tank or sump.
Most people place equipment in sump due to simple reason and that is to conceal all wires and equipment that wouldnt look good in main tank.
To OP i always keep my heaters in the middle larger section of the sump. i have 4 x300w heater in my 450gal system in garage and they keep it nice at 78F even when its snowing outside.

[SS_Sean]

Thanks for the explanation. I do understand water flow, but was referring to the time water has to be exposed to the heating wand. More water in the tank exposed to the heating wand has more time to be properly heated. If it works, I'm sure most would prefer to hide the wands in the sump. I'll give it a try. ty.

[bnumair]

Originally Posted by SS_Sean

Thanks for the explanation. I do understand water flow, but was referring to the time water has to be exposed to the heating wand. More water in the tank exposed to the heating wand has more time to be properly heated. If it works, I'm sure most would prefer to hide the wands in the sump. I'll give it a try. ty.

actually most tanks run 15x the volume in main tank for fish only 20-30x for mixed reef and 40x plus for sps dominated tanks. water movement in the main tank is much higher even in the low end of fish only tank of 15x.
most sumps run 2-5x the volume. so still there is more water contact in sump than tank.
Higher the flow less it will retain heat.

[Thekingy]

I have mine in the overflow box works great.

[Reefer54]

I run 2 in the sump just before the pump back to DT....it is the biggest chamber, and yes to hide cords and keep STUFF out of the DT. Then 1 in the overflow for redundancy and because i know that no single heater is going to be running hot all the time this way. my heaters are overkill for my tank, but i know they dont have to run full power and hopefully will last longer this way. i also pull one to heat my water for wc. i also run 3 thermometers....1 i calibrate, 1 is a cheap electronic (china), and 1 is on the seneye. redundancy.

[SS_Sean]

Very interesting! Thank you. OP hope I didn't highjack this on you.

[mx51]

Originally Posted by SS_Sean

Very interesting! Thank you. OP hope I didn't highjack this on you.

No worries we are all here to learn. Thank you for the replies guys, I was just asking because in my sump the refugium is going to be the biggest chamber in my sump. The sump will be skimmer on one end refugium on the other end and return pump in the middle. With the return pump chamber being only a couple inches bigger than the width of the pump, so I can have a bigger chamber for my refugium. I was wondering if putting 1 or even both hearters in the fuge would be ok,as I'm hoping the fuge will be a good breeding ground for pods. Lol

[ca1ore]

Originally Posted by SS_Sean

If it works, I'm sure most would prefer to hide the wands in the sump. I'll give it a try. ty.

After keeping reef tanks for most of the last 25 years, with heaters exclusively in my sumps, I'm almost certain it does work. Do indeed give it a try.

BTW, I recall having an absolutely priceless conversation with a LFS owner back when lifeguard first came out with their line of modular canister filters. He was convinced that by using their heater moduls one could get away with using a much smaller heater because 'you just have to heat the small volume of water inside the canister'. Where does one begin .....

[ca1ore]

To the OP, anywhere in the sump that gets good water flow will suffice for heater placement.

[stl_rock_guy]

I keep one in my tank and one in my sump. Just in case my return stops working while im not home, that way my main tank doesn't cool off.

[mkoop]

I keep both of mine in my return chamber of my sump

[PunkHazard]

I keep both my heaters in a low flow area of my 10 gallon sump under my tank. It's smart to have multiple heaters should one fail. Glass heaters are more fragile, but I've had mine for God knows how long. They'll probably both fail at the same time lol. If the tank is in a room where the temperature drops quite a bit, it might not be a bad idea to have one in the tank should the return pump stop. I feel like the longer the water is in contact with the heater the better, I don't know how scientific that is but seems to work just fine. So if temp drops are not a concern keep them in the sump, less wires showing.