PlanetCatfish.com

My wife and I plan to build a 150 to 180 gallon tank some time this spring or summer. If I can get away with it, I would like to eliminate in-tank heaters, to prevent heater burns on some of the talking cats which insist on hiding behind them. Could I maybe build a sump type filter and put the heaters in it? Or in-line heaters? If anyone has any experience with this sort of thing, mistakes or successes, I would like to hear about it.

KC

Aside from "give the fish a better place than behind the heater to hide", the simplest solution is probably a heater guard.

But if you're making a sump-tank anyways, then I'd say you can certainly put your heater(s) in there.

Alternatively, you can have a small compartment in a corner where you put a heater and a (small) pump to circulate water past the heater (this is how the Juwel heater/filter box works).

Or, if you're buying Eheim filters, you can get the ones with a built-in heater in the bottom of the filter.

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Mats

Hi,
I use an undertank reptile mat with a thermostat and it maintains a stable temperature. Been in use for many years but if it fails I will have to fall back on other methods. In my new planned tank I will be using a pond filter and seperate pump so I might try the heater in the filter, assuming this won't be detrimental to the bacteria.
Alison

I was going to recoommend that you choose a wet/dry filter system and to put the heater in the sump.

Sounds like you have decided on the pond filter but I suspect the wet/dry is a better design for a show aquarium.

As long as there is always water flowing through the filter and heater, the heater will not harm the filter's bacteria.

That heater should have a thermostat. You should be able to control a heater accurately and some reptile pads are designed to be "always on" Heat controllers are available that will give you full control of the heater.

I got my heaters in the sump of the biofilters and it works nicely.

but let me put out a warning!
put the filter in the FIRST compartment, where the dirty water comes in, NOT in the 'clean' compartment, often housing the pump.

the reason why? when a filter gets clogged the last compartment can run 'dry' or low and than the heater emerges! the first compartment with the turds and the dirt never does. it's more likely to flood then to run dry.

I recently blew up another heater making that mistake; in my quarantaine tank wich also has a small sump at the back.....
should have known better (isn't my first blown heater) but made the mistake and that heater went BOOM.

actually I didn't even see it go; it was sticking my hand in the tank, catching fry and looking at a shattered heater, fully submerged and 220 volts running loose with me sticking an arm into the water that immediately caught my attention.

damn, another life down the hatch. I had 9 at the start, but i lost count...uh oh