I've been thinking of coming up with a plan to place my heater somewhere besides in my tank. Has anyone done this? I have a thing about having so many gadgets in my tank. There is just no way to hide everything. The heater is the biggest thing in there. Looking at some of the external reactors sort of gave me some ideas. My idea is to make some sort of a plexiglass box with an inlet and outlet and run it on my filter outflow line. The heater would be placed on the bottom panel of this box. If the inflow and outflow lines were above the heater then the heater would stay submerged even if the lines sucked air so the heater would never get exposed to air and crack this way. Maybe there is an easier way but I haven't thought of it yet. Any ideas on this?
The rainbow lifeguard heater module looks like it connects to a whole filter unit. Looks like it stands upright. Makes me wonder if air would collect in that chamber if the filter were to ever suck air and crack the heater.
I wish that Eheim made a smaller version of that filter with the heater built in, I like that idea. I think that when I plan my next tank I'll have to keep that one in mind.
There is a heater called a fireplug and Hydor makes an external. I don't know if the Hydor's are available in the US though.
Someone on the AB board made an external type heater. I don't remember who. You could search for it in the DIY section. Basically the outflow from his cannister flowed up into some approximately 2" PVC, then to a "Y" type fitting that was turned upside down so that the "leg" of it overflowed into his tank. A screw off cap with a slot for the cord allowed the heater to be placed in this. I believe he added a short section of PVC to the outflow of it to reduce surface turbulence. Make sense? I may go see if I can dig up the article. My explanations suck. lol
You do what most saltwater keepers do and make sump for the filtering and heating. All that would be visible in the main tank would be pipes leading to the sump. I would like to do this myself but I lack the patients to start =).
Those fireplug heaters look ideal, I checked them out after you mentioned them. Made for larger tanks though, the 500W is the smallest they had @ $200.
I would like to see that DIY article on the heater module if you could find it.
Thanks
There ya go, unfortunately the pictures are not showing up anymore. Unfortunately the AB board has no photo gallery for members (it is coming soon). So the pictures are not up any longer. But perhaps Mike (ekim) will put them back up for you to see? I asked but it wouldn't hurt for you to ask also.
Thanks Jon, I saw the pictures. Thats a nifty idea, sealing around the cord was something I was wondering about. I'm sure my mind will be pondering all week at work on how to build some contraption.
There is always satisfaction for me to build something myself rather than just buy it, saving money isn't bad either!
I have the firplug. I bought it off of EBay for $50. I still don't have it set up though. In another month, I can give a full report
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