Sump heating

Well, I have decided to build a sump tank (10g) for my 37 gallon tank. My father and I made the baffles with acrylic and the silicone is setting up now and will be tested slightly tomorrow.

In the meantime, we are having a bit of a debate. From what I have read, most people place their heaters in the sump tank and go without a heater in the DT. My father, on the other hand, thinks we should play it safe and have a small heater in the sump and the normal heater stays in with the DT as well. From what we've read on melevsreef.com this is what he does with his 150G sump tank.

Any thoughts? should we use both, keep the heater in the DT by itself, or have a heater in each tank?

 

Having both is just having one more potential stuck heater. I really don't see any point on having one in the display unless the turnover of the sump is very low.

 

definitely just put it in the sump.

Heck, you can put both in there for redundancy of you want (set one a few degrees lower than the other if you do)

 

Just Note for your acrylic baffles being used in a glass sump is use lots of silicone. There is no real bonding agent that will bond acrylic and glass together at any strength. The acrylic baffles will bow depending on thickness of course but use lots of silicone to hold it in place.

N00ZE.

 

There's no point having a heater in your DT. All it does is clutter it. Yes, your DT can run a few degrees lower than the sump, but that's only if your return pump isn't powerful enough, or if the room is too warm, etc. The return pump + powerhead/s move the water around enough to disperse the heated water evenly around the tank.

 

Put it in the sump, for sure.

 

SUMP for sure. and even with my 200+ gallons of water, the two heaters in my sump keep my DT at the exact same temperature as the sump. the ONLY time this can become an issue is if your power is out and you have no circulation from the sump.

 

Sump. Why clutter up the display with more stuff you have to look at?

 

If your powers out the heater wont work anyways?

 

The main concern is that if something happened and there is no flow from the sump the DT would get too cold