Heater placement in a built in filter

Sorry its been so long since I last posted, life has its little ways of putting other challenges in our path and therefore your spare time and interests become most affected.
I would REALLY appreciate views from all of you regarding where I place my heater. I have built an internal filter in the back of my new setup. I have been concerned due to the fact that I planned on placing the heater in the last chamber with the return pump because I dont want it at all visible in the display area.
The filter skims water from the surface to the first chamber, running through the first two partitions of different grade floss for mechanical filtration, then flows over Bio Balls in the next and then into the return pump chamber.
I originally wanted to house the heater with the pump..... However, I am worried about the water level in the pump chamber should I forget to top up due to evaporation, ......bla bla bla - crack - boom! NO MORE WARMTH FOR FISH. No more fish.... Depression starts to set in...... You all know what follows! :evil::sick:

Now for the BIG question. If I place the heater in the very first chamber which has a constant water level, can the heating of the water flowing directly into the biological media do harm to the beneficial bacteria growing within - or am I just being paranoid?

 

I find that I loose so much heat when i put my heater in my built in sump. like 3-4 degrease and that = $$$ as-well when the elect bill comes.

 

I've heard of that as well. Ideally u'd want the pump to stay completey submerged... Not have water trickling over it as this brings in cold air and ggives a false temperature reading to the thermostat.

 

that's also true . but back to the question it will not harm any of the bacteria .

I don't understand why one of the chambers is not full , I think you should decrease the speed of your pump so that the water level increases and the water flow slows . this should provide beter filtration , as well as enable the heater to not over work it self .

make sure your heater is a good brand , as you will need it to be fully submerged , I don't have time to explain now but some one else will explain.

cheers

 

Don't worry about the heater and bacteria - as long as the heater stay fully submerged in the first chamber. Some of the Jeager heaters will switch off if they get emmersed, and have this excelent safety feature - don't try with a normal heater!
If the pump is a wet/dry type, it will be ok with minimum water, but could cause a gargling noise!
You are on the right track!
Gert.

 

there you go . . .

also wanted to add that most heaters have the thermostatat the top of the heater . if the heater is not fully submerged the heater will only switch of when the air around it is heated to the temperature that was set , this means that the water temperature will be hotter. hope you get what im saying ?

get a thermometer and place it on the opposite side of the tank (in relation to the heater) to get a accurate temperature reading, don't rely on the temp set on the heater (unless you have a fancy jager ofcourse )

cheers

 

Side note: My Jager heater is set at 23degrees, but 6 thermometers ALL gave me a reading of 25 degrees. DON'T RELY ON THE HEAT SETTING ON THE HEATER REGARDLESS OF WHAT MAKE IT IS

 

wow that's crazy !

jager heaters are said to be accurate to half a degree .

that 2 degrees is way of then .

only problem I can think of is that you have to large a heater for your tank size ?

 

I'm using a 250W in a 300l tank. I think it's actually a little UNDERrated. Jagers are said to be acurate within half a degree, but they don't guarantee it! They even give you instructions in their manual on how to tune this and get it correct. I've just never bothered. I know my tank is at 25 degrees, and not too phased what the heater says.

 

Thanks for the great response guys, busy doing a test run on the new tank right now and will throw a heater into the equation in the morning. The filter is working like a bomb.

 

I should actually post some pics of the tank itself but will start a new thread for that. I built it myself, but instead of clear silicone I used black with a solid black background ( It is tank friendly - Dow Corning 781 Acetoxy) to obtain a framed look. Its only a little 2 foot but plan on going planted, a shoal of Cardinals or Neons and running Co2.

 

I Think every tank has some cold spots (due to circulation) . So I don't think the temp will be the same everywhere. I've got 2 digital thermometers, they are far apart and I get a difference of 0.5 degrees between them.