Recommendation for quality aquarium heaters?

I'm seeing aquarium heaters for as low as about $11.00 on Amazon.com for 500 watt models. This seems just to low to be of any quality. It's obvious they come from you know where and I have to wonder if they are even safe to use. Or am I wrong and are they all from you know where and will they last?

I've got fish now in a two tank system that is about 750 gallons total and 45 lbs. of fish using the same rotating biofilter. I'd like to jump the temp up to about 75 of which it's sitting at about 71.0 right now. Keep in my mind this is a bluegill/yellow perch system of two circular tanks and it's to grow out YOY commercial fish in my basement during the winter to get some extra growth on them.

I'm seeing 1000 watt aquarium heaters on Ebay for about $109.00 while the commercial heaters from AES run 2 to 3 times that.

Edited by az9, 16 December 2011 - 02:46 PM.

Oooh, sorry, you're asking the wrong crowd here. I don't really have much experience with aquarium heaters because my native fish don't need one. And when the spare guppy tank does, then I just buy the model recommended for my gallon size. I've never worked with a 750 gallon system. Maybe the people at monsterfishkeepers can help? They deal with tropical species that need heat, and with tanks in your size range.

Edited by EricaWieser, 16 December 2011 - 02:52 PM.

Oooh, sorry, you're asking the wrong crowd here. I don't really have much experience with aquarium heaters because my native fish don't need one. And when the spare guppy tank does, then I just buy the model recommended for my gallon size. I've never worked with a 750 gallon system. Maybe the people at monsterfishkeepers can help? They deal with tropical species that need heat, and with tanks in your size range.

Erica,

Good point. It should have dawned on me that native fish keepers don't need heaters nor would they be interested in faster growth rate. My bad.

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

^^^+1

I use Finnex Ti also.

http://www.amazon.co...s00_i00_details

Lots of people are having success with this DIY heater.

http://aquaponicscom...00-watt-element

Edited by frigginchi, 17 December 2011 - 01:10 AM.

If you have lots of water,
gas heat is the better way to go.
Buy another furnace.

If you have lots of water,
gas heat is the better way to go.
Buy another furnace.

Good point. Not sure I have that much water yet though. A total of about 750 gallons -- little less -- with two tanks of fish, an RBC tank and two 50 gallon clarifier tanks.

Edited by az9, 21 December 2011 - 07:41 PM.