# Can I put a 300W heater into 10 gallon tank?



## Kimchi24 (Mar 22, 2013)

Anyone know if this is possible? I have a couple 300w heaters on standby and a couple 10 gallons not heated at the moment. I'm worried, as teh temperature drops, that i cannot maintain a warm enough temperature sans heater but I only have 300 watt ones as excess lol. Could i still use it?


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## chrisdup (Mar 20, 2014)

Sounds a bit risky. If the heater is not working perfectly the fishes would cook pretty quickly.


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## tomsfish (Jan 8, 2010)

I wouldnt do it. Go with max 100w best 50w. Heater malfunctions can happen more often than you expect.


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## Crayon (Apr 13, 2014)

Don't do it! You will cook the fish. Go to Big ALS. They have 50 watt heaters on for 15.00 this weekend.


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## Mikeylikes (Nov 22, 2013)

I like my fish poached ...


I wouldn't recommend as others have stated. If heater malfunctions your fish will be cooked in no time!


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## blunthead (Jan 24, 2011)

Mmmmm... fish soup for breakky


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## Bullet (Apr 19, 2014)

Agree with the others - too many watts per gallon !
I have a 25 or 50 watt that I can loan you if you are desperate


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## Kimchi24 (Mar 22, 2013)

Ah ok. I was just curious because i have three extra 300w and six ten gallons. Ill go to big als and pick some 50w up


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## Crayon (Apr 13, 2014)

Kimchi24 said:


> Ah ok. I was just curious because i have three extra 300w and six ten gallons. Ill go to big als and pick some 50w up


Nbd. It's good you asked. Avoids making the same mistake some of us have made in the past (speaking from experience......)


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## MBen89 (Jul 24, 2015)

hmm, I might be the only black sheep on this thread to say: go for it. Why? because I've done it before and nothing happened. Mine however is one of the heaters that you could adjust. If you have a similar one, set it low, and put it there. I only did it for a month because I was in the middle of moving and I had to house whatever fish were left in my 10 gallon one. I turned it off at night though just because I couldn't monitor it.

My fish seemed to like the day/night temperature changes and were more active and lively. If you don't like taking chances, go on kijiji and get a used one for cheap.


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## tom g (Jul 8, 2009)

*heater*

we all take chances ... and it all depends on what u have to loose ... personally I have no prob buying a new heater when I need one , I don't like selling them to anyone just in case on the off chance something stupid happens and they cook there fish , so be weary of what u get on kijjii... and be weary of choices that could affect your set up ....seems like a lot of work for just a ten gallon tank why not get a proper heater and basically set it and forget it .... jm2c .....
like Cheryl said 15 bucks gets u a new heater ... peace of mind ...and on that note I have seen new products malf as well ....


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## Kimchi24 (Mar 22, 2013)

Ok, so I went out, a bought a couple 50w heaters to heat up the 10g tanks i have stocked at the moment. They are not keeping the tanks at the temps i want. Maybe 50w was too low but its not performing the way I want to. On the flip side, I had two of my 10g empty so, as an experiment, I filled them up and put my 300w heaters in them. They seem to keep the water at the right temp. The only thing that is iffy is how fast the water warmed up to temp but it never broke temp. Very disappointed in my purchase but im also to afraid to use my 300w. I guess I'll use the boxing weekend sale to buy some 100w heaters instead. Ambient room temp when i checked wad 68F and tanks were at 70F. I dialed them in at 80F. So not performing well at all.


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## Bullet (Apr 19, 2014)

50W should be definitely enough for a 10 gallon and while you may have already taken the following steps, please allow me to offer these suggestions:
* is there enough flow to move the heated water around? Especially in small tanks, water movement may not be enough and you will find hot and cold spots 
Place the heater close to filter or power head out put to ensure that the warmed water is circulating throughout the tank 
* check temps at different spots in the tank and different depths.
* is there a draft near the tank - a cool breeze so to speak that might cause the tank to cool off too far
* is your tank covered ? If not, you may wish to install a cover - heat can be lost / or better retained with a cover - even a partial cover 
* if you are concerned, perhaps use 2 50 watts in the 10 gallon on opposite ends. Overkill in my opinion but worth it if you are worried. 
Definitely you will not see the "speed" of water heating with lower wattage heaters but consistency is more of a factor than speed 
Finally, I like to use redundancy when it comes to heating - 2 smaller wattage is preferred over one big wattage IMO


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## Kimchi24 (Mar 22, 2013)

I seem to have enough circulation to move water. I have checked different areas in the tank. I have a sponge filter set up and an air pump rated for 100g pumping air into all six tanks. I suppose It may be because i haven't built lids yet. Is there any way i can get all of these 10g (6 of them) to be heated with one unit? Like a sump? Idk how i would plumb 10g tanks. the glass seems too thin.


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## Reis (Nov 15, 2011)

This helped me figure out my heater situstion. 
Now you may need a 100w because if the temperature in the room is colder, for example 60-65F and you want temperature at 80F then that's a 20F difference which means that 50w heater is gonna work super hard to get your desired temperature or it may just give up lol and never be able to reach or keep that temp steady. The 100w would help to maintain and keep the desired temp easier if the room is colder or is susceptible to temperature changes often. I have tanks in different areas in my house and they all retain heat differently. 
So do what works best for you and your situation. 
Learn about your own set ups and environment  it'll take some trial and error but remember what works for one person might not work for another because there are too many variable for everyone to have the same set ups and conditions.


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## Kajendra (Dec 12, 2010)

Keep in mind that the heaters might not be callibrated.
In other words, you might set 80F but there might be an internal offset set to 78F.

So the other heater is compensating more but is unable to reach the desired temperature.

I think this might provide some assistance.

Below is a calculation for 10 Gal for your temperature difference.
http://www.kernsanalysis.com/CalcMi...PORT=WOOD&DELTAT=12&TEMPUNIT=F&.submit=Submit

If that wasn't too much math, try to put only one of your heaters in the 10 Gal tank and set it to 74F perhaps and see what temperature you measure in the tank. That difference will be your offset, some heaters allow you to fix this offset, calibrate them.

As per creating a system to heat and filter 6 of these tanks. This might be the most efficient way to do this, I haven't read up on this so do share what you find!

I would say that 300W might not be enough for the system to account for heat losses.


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## tom g (Jul 8, 2009)

*advice*

Hey there that sucks .. but i think its fixable by trial and errror
when u are mucking around with the heater dont do any changes 
then leave the tank unattended. .. what ever u choose to do
if u make a change make sure u around the tsnk to monitor 
the temp rise or decline ...i would start raising the temp on the 
heater till u reach the proper temp u want the tank at...i used a cooking 
electronic temp gauge to double chk with my aquarium thermometer. ...


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