# Hydor 300W Inline Heater??



## t-bore (Apr 21, 2010)

Has anyone tried using one of these for a 125G? I have one on my 50G and love it so I was thinking of putting one on my 125G but it is only rated for up to 80G. You think it will work or burn out in a short time?

Cheers


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## 2wheelsx2 (Apr 21, 2010)

I don't think it'll burn out, but if the weather gets cold and your room is much below the set temp, 300w is not going to keep up. You'd probably need 2 unless your room is pretty warm. I plan on using one on a 100 gallon, but it's upstairs where it's warmer.


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## hp10BII (Apr 23, 2010)

I use 2 x 200w in a 120g, I keep the temps a little bit on the high side. No problems with it.

IMO whether a heater is inline or not, size of the tank is one factor, also the ambient temperature of the room the tank is in would be a big one too. If the difference between the temp in the tank and room temp is small, you can get away with less wattage.


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## t-bore (Apr 21, 2010)

How do you run 2? Just have them one after the other on the outlet tube? Our house doesn't get too cold. The tank is against an outside wall but we have a gas firplace 6 feet from the tank which we use for heat in the winter. Plus I was thinking of keeping one of my heaters in there now so that i can always drop in the tank for the winter if the temp does drop down.


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## 2wheelsx2 (Apr 21, 2010)

2 canisters, or one on a canister and another closed loop with a pump. If you're going to put a heater inside the tank, you might as well put 2 in there. In tank heaters are much cheaper. I don't have inline heaters in my 125 as in a 6 foot tank it's easy to hide heaters. It's in the smaller tanks that I have problems hiding them. Another option I just thought of is that you can you the Hydor inline and add a Smartheater as the intake on your canister, so now you have 2 heaters but no extra things in your tank. Although you might want to add a controller so that the Smartfilter is not doing all the work since it'll be in front of the Hydor.


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## tony1928 (Apr 22, 2010)

This is so true. My 400g is in a room that's always a least 73F. My heaters barely come on to keep it at 78F. I could probably get away with a single 500w heater but I have two on a controller just for redundancy. If I kept the tank in unheated garage, my 1000w worth of heaters would probably be insufficient in winter. I'd probably have to use an oil heater to keep the ambient up.



hp10BII said:


> also the ambient temperature of the room the tank is in would be a big one too. If the difference between the temp in the tank and room temp is small, you can get away with less wattage.


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## 2wheelsx2 (Apr 21, 2010)

tony1928 said:


> This is so true. My 400g is in a room that's always a least 73F. My heaters barely come on to keep it at 78F. I could probably get away with a single 500w heater but I have two on a controller just for redundancy. If I kept the tank in unheated garage, my 1000w worth of heaters would probably be insufficient in winter. I'd probably have to use an oil heater to keep the ambient up.


Your tank is acrylic though Tony, and a much better insulator than glass tanks. It takes a lot for a single 300w heater to heat a glass 125. I know I couldn't do it, but of course my basement is at 66 F and I heat to 80, so it's a bit more of a stretch.


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## tony1928 (Apr 22, 2010)

Good point that I forgot Gary.  The acrylic really really helps. Think of boiling hot water in a plastic cup versus a glass....which one would you want to hold in your bare hands for a minute. Now that you point that out, I'm pretty happy I went with acrylic!



2wheelsx2 said:


> Your tank is acrylic though Tony, and a much better insulator than glass tanks. It takes a lot for a single 300w heater to heat a glass 125. I know I couldn't do it, but of course my basement is at 66 F and I heat to 80, so it's a bit more of a stretch.


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## t-bore (Apr 21, 2010)

My Tank is a 6 foot glass, I have 2-200watt heaters in the tank now but was going to try to get them out and go with an inline one instead. just for looks so nothing is visible.


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## Jonney_boy (Apr 28, 2010)

I have the 300w inline on a 100g tank (3ft x 2ft x 2ft). The room is "fairly" cool (about 20 deg's C) and the tank is 82 deg F (sorry for the different units). I would say the heater can hardly keep up. It is running 70-80% of the time.

I would defently add a second one to the tank later...


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## 2wheelsx2 (Apr 21, 2010)

Hmmm....sounds like I might have to get another heater then. Bummer. My tank is going to be 3x3x2 (square base).


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