Hydor external heater.

[Liam50LB]

hey

i have a juwel rio 400 and i'm planning on taking the internal filter out this weekend and replace it with my new eheim 2028 and i was wondering what to do with the heaters as they currently sit in the internal box. i thought maybe about a hydor external heater. now is 300w enough power to heat 400l? if not should i get 2 x 200w and run one on output and a other on input?

thanks for your help
liam

[MatsP]

Hydor (so Martin S says) do not recommend running them on input line - I'm sure it will work, but it's probably better in some obscure way to use the outlet side My guess would be probably two things:
1. all sorts of muck gets sucked through the input side and may get stuck in the heater.
2. pressure goes on the output side, so there's less problem with obstructions in the line.

I guess you could put two on the same outlet.

The heater that COMES WITH the tank is a 300W heater, by the way.

However, there is possibly a small difference in efficiency on the external vs. internal heater - an internal heater releases ALL it's heat into the tank. An external heater may release a bit of its heat into the surrounding space (heating the room).

I have still got my filter box in my RIO400, but it only holds the 300W replacement heater [the Juwel one decided to stay permanently on after about 3 years] and my second external filter inlet/outlet hides there too [the outlet is modifed to exit through the existing hole]. The first external filter lives in the other cupboard and is not hidden very well.

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Mats

[Martin S]

Yes, as Mats says, they must be run on the output side. I prefer them as they remove any chance of fish getting heater burn (especially catfish), and reduce the amount of in-tank 'clutter'. I've used mine and am very pleased with it though have just sold it as my new Pro 3 has 16mm on both in and out, so now need to replace it with a 200W/16mm version.
I'd definitely recommend the hydor.
Martin

[Liam50LB]

so just confirming that 300w is enough for 400l

thanks for all your replies

and i will make sure to put it on outlet

[MatsP]

300w is enough unless you either have very warm water in your tank or very cool room temperature in the room. The wattage of heater you need to heat a certain amount of water is dependant on the temperature difference between the room and the water.

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Mats