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Aquarium Water Heater suggestions?

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HopHead73

Brewmaster at Jbyrd Brewing, Hophead
Joined
Jul 28, 2011
Messages
170
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Location
Norwalk
Looking for suggestions on brands of aquarium heaters to use in a fermentation chamber I've built.

My set-up is a 60 qt Igloo cooler with a custom foam insulation top cut to allow for a 5 to 6.5 gallon carboy.
Fill it up with about 5-6 gallons of water.
I have a Johnson Digital Temperature Controller with a thermowell.
During the summer I'll use the temp controller to just monitor the temperature and use frozen water bottles floating in the water to help keep the carboy at the right temperature.
But, since its the winter months now I want to use an aquarium heater to heat up the water to keep the temp consistent.
I'm thinking I would only need a 50w heater and possibly a small aquarium water pump to help circulate the water.

Doe anyone have any suggestions of heaters that they have used successfully?
Preferably one that they have hooked up to a digital temp controller
 
Ebo Jager has always seemed like the best. The glass is much thicker than other brands. I haven't bought one in a long time though. I've had one in a 100g saltwater tank. It has it's own temp controller, but it would work fine with an external.

(I think it still works. Between where I live, the metal halide and VHO lamps, all the pumps I have, it might never come on)
 
i use Rena heaters in all my aquariums, and thus use them to warm my swamp cooler. you can set the temp and they're fairly accurate. the draw back is that the lowest setting is 66, but i've never had any issue with them.
all that said, i think any cheap aquarium heater will suffice, just make sure you calibrate it properly (usually sitting it in the water for a bit before plugging in) and pay attention to the temps in the swamp cooler.
 
I use an Aqueon and it works fine. I use a seperate thermometer to monitor temp and the heater seems to be calibrated pretty good.
 
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