Caprichoso Posted March 27, 2011 Report Share Posted March 27, 2011 (edited) I am running 2 heaters in my 140g, 75 watts per heater. They are Marineland Stealth (not the pro), just the plain black ones without indicator lights. Anyway, I had them placed on opposite sides of the tank, one by the outflow and the other by the intake. I have noticed that one of the heaters gets VERY hot, (the one by the outflow), while the other one, (by the intake), stays cold. I thought the cold one was broken so I unplugged the hot one to test it. The cold heater started heating up! Frig, so annoying....so I decided to change the location of the heaters and put them closer to eachother to see what would happen. Well, that same heater started getting hot again. I also took the cold heater out of the tank and put it in a cold bucket of water...it heated up just fine..it just doesn't seem to do it in conjunction with the other heater. WHY oh WHY!!!! Hoopla! Can anyone offer some advice on why this is happening and what I should do. I've never had a problem with these heaters before...just wondering if I have the placement wrong in the tank. Thanks in advance! Edited March 27, 2011 by Caprichoso Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jcgd Posted March 27, 2011 Report Share Posted March 27, 2011 It sound like they aren't set to the same temperature. One is set lower just enough to have it turn on without the other. Try to adjust the cold one to a touch higher set point and try it again. Or get a temp controller. That way it turns the heaters on and off together. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caprichoso Posted March 28, 2011 Author Report Share Posted March 28, 2011 Thanks! I put the heaters in separate buckets with thermometers and discovered that even though they were both set for 79F, one made the water 80F and the other one was only heating to 77F. I made an adjustment and hopefully they both come on together now. I've never had 2 heaters before so I've never had to consider this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
punman Posted March 28, 2011 Report Share Posted March 28, 2011 I tried running two heaters in a tank and had the same problem as you so gave up and just use one. The theory behind two is that you have a back up if one fails. On the down side, I figure you are doubling the chance that a heater will stick on the "on' position and fry the fish so I just use one and have a spare if it malfunctions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caprichoso Posted March 28, 2011 Author Report Share Posted March 28, 2011 After a couple of adjustments, they both seem to be working together. I put them back in the tank and hopefully it's sorted out now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XodoK Posted March 29, 2011 Report Share Posted March 29, 2011 One thing I DON'T mess with is an aquarium heater. If it malfunctions I replace it. It's not worth the risk of putting my fish in harms way. Ebo Jager's work pretty good too fyi Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caprichoso Posted March 29, 2011 Author Report Share Posted March 29, 2011 It wasn't malfunctioning, it just had to be manually calibrated. I know how you feel though, I told my partner that if we didn't get this sorted out fast, that I was going to get the heaters that you can calibrate easier. We have Eheim in our smaller tanks which can be calibrated very easily. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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