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Hi, everyone: I have a Waterland tub for 2 twistnecks that contains about 2.5 gallons of fresh water, which is only ~2.5-3" deep. The ambient temperature in the room is ~74 degF, and I need to heat the turtles' water to ~82-84 degF.

I don't want to use one of the low-end heaters made for small tanks because I'm not comfortable using something that doesn't have a thermostat. I'm willing to pay substantially more for a heater that will keep the water at a constant temp, but I'm not sure what the best heater would be for such a low water volume. Does anyone have an idea?

So far, a couple of possibilities are the Marineland Visi Therm Stealth 25W Heater and the ViaAqua Stainless Steel Freshwater Heater, but I've seen a couple of reviews now where the Marineland heater's thermostat stopped working and raised the H20 temp to 100+degrees (among many positive reviews, but still). I'm still looking.

Alternatively, I'd consider using a stand-alone thermostat with a submersible probe to control an under-tank heater, but haven't yet figured out whether such thermostats are available--it appears from my searching so far that most thermos for aquariums are built into the heaters.

If anyone has a thought about what I should consider, I'd be grateful. Again, I'd prefer to err on the side of paying more for a very reliable heating set-up. (Since it's such a small amount of water, we have very little room for error.)

Thanks in advance for any advice!

I've had success w/my rena smartheater, if I remember right it got it at petsmart. It has a dial thermostat and it's always within a half degree of my digital temp gauge. Getting a larger watt heater won't be a problem for the amount of water you're wanting to heat...and it'll save you from spending more down the line if/when you upgrade to a set-up w/a larger volume of water. The rena has a built-in shutoff if water temps get too high - you can pick up a digital thermometer for ~$10 to ease your concerns and it's fun to monitor. Also mounting the heater in a horizontal position will work as most heaters are usually thin...the smartheater is more of an oval shape ~1.25" in diameter.

Thanks so much! For some reason, I wasn't able to find much in the way of reviews of that heater online, although I did look at it because we've had very good experiences so far with our Rena filters.

I had thought maybe the Rena heater could only be used as an inline with their filter, but clearly it's more versatile than that. Great advice, thanks!