Retirement and forum shutdown (17 Jan 2022)

Hi,

John Howell who has managed the forum for years is getting on and wishes to retire from the role of managing it.
Over the years, he has managed the forum through good days and bad days and he has always been fair.
He has managed to bring his passion for fish keeping to the forum and keep it going for so long.

I wish to thank John for his hard work in keeping the forum going.

With John wishing to "retire" from the role of managing the forum and the forum receiving very little traffic, I think we must agree that forum has come to a natural conclusion and it's time to put it to rest.

I am proposing that the forum be made read-only from March 2022 onwards and that no new users or content be created. The website is still registered for several more years, so the content will still be accessible but no new topics or replies will be allowed.

If there is interest from the ITFS or other fish keeping clubs, we may redirect traffic to them or to a Facebook group but will not actively manage it.

I'd like to thank everyone over the years who helped with forum, posted a reply, started a new topic, ask a question and helped a newbie in fish keeping. And thank you to the sponsors who helped us along the away. Hopefully it made the hobby stronger.

I'd especially like to thank John Howell and Valerie Rousseau for all of their contributions, without them the forum would have never been has successful.

Thank you
Darragh Sherwin

External or "In Line" Heater Question

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dantheman (dantheman)
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29 Jul 2010 10:34 - 29 Jul 2010 10:35 #1 by dantheman (dantheman)

External or "In Line" Heater Question was created by dantheman (dantheman)

Hi. Has anyone every used an external heater in combination with an Eheim external filter or similiar?

The heater in the link below looks interesting but can I get one in Dublin?

www.marinedepot.com/heaters_hydor_eth_inline_in-line-ap.html

Last edit: 29 Jul 2010 10:35 by dantheman (dantheman).

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Ma (mm mm)
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29 Jul 2010 11:41 #2 by Ma (mm mm)

Replied by Ma (mm mm) on topic Re:External or "In Line" Heater Question

Hi mate,

I have never used an external heater, some have as they don't like putting wires into the aquarium. If you have a filter issue the heater goes too which is my concern.
Of all my gear, only heaters have failed on me so a second one is a must especially in a large tank.
All my tanks have dual filtration even the 90l nanacube has its own filter and a matured sponge filter connected to an air pump, not always possible or practical for everyone, I just dont want to get up and see all my fish dead, anger and dismay I avoid with a little extra cost:)

I see the link, it is mentioned even putting this heater in the correct diameter hosing, so you'd have to clean that too and expect some reduced flow with that setup.

I am sure this would work fine. It comes with additional risks imo.

Mark

Location D.11

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dantheman (dantheman)
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29 Jul 2010 12:05 #3 by dantheman (dantheman)

Replied by dantheman (dantheman) on topic Re:External or "In Line" Heater Question

Thanks Mark!

I only have a 70 litre tank. I have a really good external filter but I'm actually using an 8 year old heater (100w I think). I would like to get the wires out of the tank for visual reasons but also cause this one is old anyway and I rhink I should replace it.

I wonder if there is a small internal filter similiar to a small Fluval that also countains a heater. That way I could do both and have a failsafe for the heating and filtration.

Anyone aware of such a thing, a small filter heater combo?

Thanks!

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KenS (Ken Simpson)
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29 Jul 2010 12:06 #4 by KenS (Ken Simpson)

Replied by KenS (Ken Simpson) on topic Re:External or "In Line" Heater Question

I've never used one of those Hydor external heaters, but I have read bad things about their effectiveness and reliability.

Regards,

Ken.

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Ma (mm mm)
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29 Jul 2010 12:24 - 29 Jul 2010 12:26 #5 by Ma (mm mm)

Replied by Ma (mm mm) on topic Re:External or "In Line" Heater Question

An internal will be more of an eyesore in a 70 litre that a 100w Heater.

I have a Fluval Biolife internal wetdry hangon filter, with a heater slot in the casing, of course for a Fluval heater, mine wouldn't fit, so there are options out there. The biolife would be too large for a 70 litre.

My advice is to replace your heater with a new one, Eheim Jager smart heaters are good and fairly reliable. It is unreasonable to try to have redundancy on every piece of gear in a lot of cases but a second 50w small heater set to a half a degree lower so it comes on only when the temp drops by half a degree would give some redundancy and give a boost in colder weather.

I think the enternal is sufficient for filtration and Eheims rarely fail. It is always good to have a small internal, kept in storage incase the external gets an issue, you just grab some media pop in into the internal and away you go getting hte external fixed or replaced.

KenS wrote:

I've never used one of those Hydor external heaters, but I have read bad things about their effectiveness and reliability.

Cheers Ken for the warning:)

Mark

Location D.11

Last edit: 29 Jul 2010 12:26 by Ma (mm mm).

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dantheman (dantheman)
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29 Jul 2010 13:37 #6 by dantheman (dantheman)

Replied by dantheman (dantheman) on topic Re:External or "In Line" Heater Question

Thanks Ken. Thank you Mark!

I think I may go for a smart heater, provided thet are neat enough for the tank. However.....

I would really like to get the heater out of my tank. What if I used a longer output hose from my external filter to the tank, say 5 metres and coiled the middle 3 metres of it up like a spring (without kinking it) and placed it in a bucket filled with water under the tank and had a decent strenght internal heater in the bucket? Could this heat my tank water through the hose? Would this need a pump too? Am I just really over complicating it? I'm thinking of the way Guiness is cooled by being pumped in tubes through cool liquid.

If I really want to get an external heater are there any other safe options?

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Ma (mm mm)
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29 Jul 2010 14:04 - 29 Jul 2010 14:06 #7 by Ma (mm mm)

Replied by Ma (mm mm) on topic Re:External or "In Line" Heater Question

I am not sure matey tbh, I do know that no filtration will happen with a 5 meter hose, theres usually a limit to hosing lenght and height from filter to tank. It seems excessive to go to all that trouble with a "Heating Pool" between filter and tank with a pump and opens up a new set of issues and problems.

There are thermal filters, expensive I think. Eheim make some, but I never used one though others on here might have, maybe there are some cheaper ones that have a heater compartment, I am unsure of that.

I wonder if a heating cable would do the job in a 70 Litre? Anyone? Probably not as I think there is no control and maybe not enough heat.
Other than that, I'd go with a small heater and hide it in the corner, it doesn't need to be completely submerged to the wiring, I never do that with mine, afraid of leaking and zap!!!

Mark

Location D.11

Last edit: 29 Jul 2010 14:06 by Ma (mm mm).

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dar (darren curry)
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29 Jul 2010 14:11 - 29 Jul 2010 14:15 #8 by dar (darren curry)

Replied by dar (darren curry) on topic Re:External or "In Line" Heater Question

wat about a tiny sump/overflow box hidden behind the tank (wit the heater in it), the outflow flows in and over flows into the tank

Check out the angling section, it is fantastic

Last edit: 29 Jul 2010 14:15 by dar (darren curry).

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dantheman (dantheman)
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29 Jul 2010 14:13 #9 by dantheman (dantheman)

Replied by dantheman (dantheman) on topic Re:External or "In Line" Heater Question

Thanks again Mark.

I think you are right. I'll propobly just get a new standard one and do a job hiding it. Sure I'll see what they have in the LFSs.

Thanks again!

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Ma (mm mm)
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29 Jul 2010 14:15 - 29 Jul 2010 14:16 #10 by Ma (mm mm)

Replied by Ma (mm mm) on topic Re:External or "In Line" Heater Question

Youre better off, sometimes we over complicate things, like me thinking of some UV contraption until I got sound advice from the lads:)

mark

Location D.11

Last edit: 29 Jul 2010 14:16 by Ma (mm mm).

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dantheman (dantheman)
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29 Jul 2010 14:39 #11 by dantheman (dantheman)

Replied by dantheman (dantheman) on topic Re:External or "In Line" Heater Question

Hi Dar,

Thats interesting. I liked the idea of a sump but when I read up on it, it seemed thay were unsuitable for a planted tank, something to do with CO2 injection and ammonia versus plants. However could I use one for the purpose of heating and treating (drops etc) water only and still use my external filter as normal?

I'm still not really sure how a sump works even though I've had a look at a few pics and read a few posts etc. Does it use a vacume or what stops the water from spilling out of the sump?

Thanks again!

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dar (darren curry)
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29 Jul 2010 14:47 - 29 Jul 2010 14:58 #12 by dar (darren curry)

Replied by dar (darren curry) on topic Re:External or "In Line" Heater Question

well the way i was thinking was to have it slightly raised at the back of the tank wit the filter flowing in first and then flow over the top of the tank, but if you wanted to have it under the tank you'd drill a hole in your tank around water level secure some pipe work into the sump underneath and a power head and some hosing to pump it back into the tank

edit: (sorry juggling laptop and baby) the way i explained gravity feeds the sump so it will only flow into the sump as the power head feeds the tank, if the power head stops the water will stop flowing at water level, just leave some room in the sump for the excess water in the pipe work

Check out the angling section, it is fantastic

Last edit: 29 Jul 2010 14:58 by dar (darren curry).

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29 Jul 2010 22:55 #13 by platty252 (Darren Dalton)

Replied by platty252 (Darren Dalton) on topic Re:External or "In Line" Heater Question

The early Hydor external heaters were badly made and not always reliable.
They have improved a lot. I am using 2 at the moment with no real restriction to water flow from the fiter.

They come with diffrent hose size connections so you need to make sure you get the right one.

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Ma (mm mm)
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30 Jul 2010 00:25 #14 by Ma (mm mm)

Replied by Ma (mm mm) on topic Re:External or "In Line" Heater Question

I stand corrected. I assumed the heater being in the hosing would become caked as I see my hosing is a bit ewwww on te inside.

Well now I know.

mark

Location D.11

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30 Jul 2010 04:12 #15 by platty252 (Darren Dalton)

Replied by platty252 (Darren Dalton) on topic Re:External or "In Line" Heater Question

The inside of the heaters is hollow with roughly the same diameter as the filter tubing.
When it comes time to clean the tubing there is no need to remove the heater just push the cleaning brush right through.

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Ma (mm mm)
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30 Jul 2010 10:36 #16 by Ma (mm mm)

Replied by Ma (mm mm) on topic Re:External or "In Line" Heater Question

Simple wen you know how eh. If it works and it does, certainly a great place to conceal heaters no doubt if there is no sump.

Something I may look into when I do finally start the larger tank. Correct me if I am wrong but with a filter failure over night it is probably best if the tank cools to a lower temprature as the toxins rise.

Cheers

Mark

Location D.11

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