Habitat - Indoor :: HEATER ADVICE

[RonnWilliams]

hello. It's time for me to buy a heater!

I'm a college student on a budget (even though I don't mind spoiling my
Timmy now and again). I see from the site that The Marineland Visi-Therm Stealth Submersible Aquarium Heater (100 W is $35) is very popular. I have a RES in an approx 20 gal tank. What other heaters would you all recommned? How important is having the heater fully submerisble?

Please give me your opinion of the following:

Visi-Therm Deluxe Aquarium Heater (100 W @ $25)
EHEIM Jager Aquarium Heater (100 W @ $22)
THEO UL Aquarium Heaters from Hydor (shatter-proof glass, 300 W @ $30)

[chrisinva]

I have this one you mentioned

Visi-Therm Deluxe Aquarium Heater (100 W @ $25)




I'm very happy with it

[Chrisbarnett]

I have/had both the Marineland Visi-Therm Stealth, and the Hydor Theo heater. They are both very accurate, But I like the fact that the stealth is black, and it is "unbreakable."

When it comes down to it, personal preference is what its all about. Although I'd say 300W in a 20g is pushing it.

when i had my 30g i used a 100W Hydor Theo heater, did the job just fine.

[steve]

I mentioned this in another post of yours, but I'd go for the Jager. The prices you've listed are a bit high, except for the Jager.

[RonnWilliams]

I saw a fully submerisble glass heater by Penn Plax at a local pet store. The one for a 30 gal and the one for the 55 gal tank was $26 each.

Is it very important that the heater is fully submerisble and/or unbreakable for RES's????

It's trying to warm up in the midwest this week and my school is in a small town with one small pet store. I could wait till the weekend and go to Pet's Mart (which is the web site these prices are quoted from) or order it online so it's here by the weekend. The water temp has been around 70 degrees and he's a baby. He seems normal and he's been basking off course.

What should I do???

[SpotsMama]

I think fully submersible is important and unbreakable is important for a large turtle though not essential for a little guy. A large turtle can actually bite hard enough to break a glass heater though most often heaters shatter because they are accidently left on when the tank is drained, then they heat up too much and break when the cool replacement water touches them. However, people do use glass thermometers successfully - just be very careful when you drain the tank, and when your turtle gets a little bigger, think about some sort of heater guard to keep him from biting it.

I like getting the best equipment you can, including heaters, so you don't have to keep upgrading all the time. Like a lot of people on here, I went through 4 complete setups (10 gallon, 20 gallon, 55 gallon and 100 gallon), and several generations of equipment on the various setups, before finally getting the good setup for my grown turtle. Cost hundreds of dollars. I could have saved some by moving to the good, full sized equipment sooner. But...you do what you have to.