Posted 17 December 2011 - 12:27 AM
I've been using unbreakable Azoo and Finnex titanium heaters for a while now. All my old glass heaters are in a box, out in the shop.
Titanium heaters won't shatter if they are accidentally run out of the water, dropped, or stepped on. Many have an auto shut-off feature if they overheat from running out of the water. And, they are quite a bit smaller than equal wattage glass heaters.
Most also have the thermostat on the plug end, much easier to fiddle with than a submerged glass heater's integral thermostat. The high wattage (500+) titanium heaters often do not have an integral thermostats and require an external controller. The reasoning is that high watt heaters are often used in groups in LARGE tanks, and a single thermostat controller is easier to set up than five or six individual plug-end thermostats.
I use heaters in many of my planted tanks that have cold intolerant plant species, or, in very small tanks (>3g) which lack the volume to be temperature stable.
While I primarily keep native fish, they are oftentimes secondary to the plants.
Also, a few of the fish species I keep (Jordanella floridae, Poecilia latipinna for example) will reproduce continually with stable water temps. The wild sailfin mollies in particular thrive in a stable 77°f, year round.
Rick