Archived message board.

Heater issues

I have a tronic 200 watt heater in a 58 gallon tank. It is 6 months old. It used to hold a temperature steady all through the winter, but in the past month I have noticed a decrease in performance. The heater is set at 77 degrees, but the thermometer reads 74 degrees. However, I also stopped heating the room as spring has arrived and the room is actually a little cooler (67-68 degrees) than I keep it in the winter. The few days that the outside temp rose over 80, the tank water went back up to 77 -79 degrees base on the warmth of the room. My questions: do I need a second heater? Does this heater sound defective? Is it typical that big fluctuations in room temp would so severly affect water temp? Any veteran advice would be appreciated.


• those tronic heaters are pretty reliable..and a back up heater is a great option....love those ebo-jaggars..anyway your heater relys on a sensor resting on the glass to sample water directly....sometimes this can get damaged or dirty...try cleaning it with vinagar then placing it back in your tank...ambient room temps can make the heater work harder.but it should handle it through those adjustments.. if I had those temps in my house I'd be laughing...try 60-65 F average in the great white north...trying to keep my DIY CO2 bottles going is hard enough...

• I have Tronics in 3 of my tanks and I have the same thing. Usually I only get a variance of 2 degrees if the room temp is a lot colder than normal. I keep mine at 78 normally so I don't worry about it.