regarding red sea max 250's heater and..

I

icewall2k3

New Member
Hi

I am new the forum and aquarium..

just bought the set yesterday. planning to do fish only with live rocks for now.

2 quick newbie questions..

1) can the heater that came with the tank be completely submerged into the water (even including the the top where you adjust the temp.)

2) should the fine polishing mechanical filter be added right away? or wait until live rock is added?

Thanks so much in advance!
 
D

David Shaw

Well-Known Member
Ditch the stock heater. They practically always fail at best and explode at worst. For the cost of a replacement heater it is worth replacing.
 
Reefmack

Reefmack

NaClH2O Addicted
PREMIUM
:welcomera icewall! Unfortunately they're correct about the heater - replace it with another brand before you get too far into the future.

When you add substrate and/or rock, and the tank is cloudy you could use the fine filter to clear it up faster. Those plug up pretty easily so rinse it out frequently if you're clearing a lot of stuff out of the water.
 
RedSeaKev

RedSeaKev

RS Sponsor
Hi All you Red Sea Max owners, at the expense of getting flamed on here I would like to state the following, also I'm happy to help as best I can with any concerns you have about Red Sea Heaters.

Red Sea’s Max heaters are manufactured by one of the world’s largest suppliers of aquarium heaters, they operate using standard bi-metallic technology.
Should any heater fail under warranty, Red Sea will replace the heater. Anyone with issues concerning heaters under warranty should please contact their local Red Sea service centre. Contact details for each country’s customer care can be found on either www.redseamax.com or www.redseafish.com”


RedSeaKev
 
Dweezil

Dweezil

Well-Known Member
Hi RedSeaKev,

You will not get flamed here. (not by me anyway) but I will voice my opinion. ;) Almost all of us have had the the heaters fail. Either by sticking on and getting way too hot or by just not turning on at all. This is happening on brand new setups. I could never get my temp stable with that heater but I figured it was just me. My tank was HOT even when the heater was turned way down. Come to find out it was not turning off...ever. Once I switched out the heater my temp has been spot on. I was lucky and this happened to me before I had any live stock in my tank. It's just not worth the worry/hassle for a relatively inexpensive part to replace with a good heater. I am only one of MANY that this has happened to and many have a much worse story than I.
When you are putting $100's or $1000's of dollars of animals and coral in a tank and loose them then word spreads pretty quickly and others come forward. Red Sea heaters may be "manufactured by one of the world’s largest suppliers of aquarium heaters" but that does not make them good. They are IMO horrible, unreliable and in some cases dangerous.
 
Nowellsy SNR

Nowellsy SNR

Active Member
Shortly after replacing my stock heater with a Rena while using the stock one to heat my water it blew up so glad it was'nt in my tank
 
O

offshore357

Member
icewall2k3 said:
Thanks guys...

btw what kinda heater do you guys recommend for this tank?
Click to expand...

Ebo Jager,

But are u sure u need a heater? IMHO, I would setup and start cycling. See what temps u will deal with. I don't have a heater in mine ( never came close to needing one)

I use the filter pads for an hour or so after maintenance. You could run dual layer pads 24/7. Any pad you use will mess with ur water levels.

Good Luck, -JOHN
 
P

PaulBromley

Member
RedSeaKev said:
Hi All you Red Sea Max owners, at the expense of getting flamed on here I would like to state the following, also I'm happy to help as best I can with any concerns you have about Red Sea Heaters.

Red Sea’s Max heaters are manufactured by one of the world’s largest suppliers of aquarium heaters, they operate using standard bi-metallic technology.
Should any heater fail under warranty, Red Sea will replace the heater. Anyone with issues concerning heaters under warranty should please contact their local Red Sea service centre. Contact details for each country’s customer care can be found on either www.redseamax.com or www.redseafish.com”


RedSeaKev
Click to expand...

I can only speak of the one in my 130D, it was impossible to get a stable temperature with it, I replaced with a rena as advised and temps now vary by .3deg on a cold night lights off to 12hrs lights on. Why redsea do not just include a good heater after all the comments on here and elsewhere is beyond me.
 
lethal

lethal

Has been struck by the ban stick
Me too Richard. Mine is still going ok too but after reading many posts about these heaters i'm going to get a Rena 300. I just don't want to take the risk.

Anthony... Did your's actually blow up?
 
D

David Shaw

Well-Known Member
+ 1 with Tammy. Failing heaters are bad enough but exploding ones are extremely dangerous.

I got a replacement heater under the warranty, but i ditched it, as i am not prepared to take the risk of it exploding (like it did for Anthony and others).

I use a Rena now with great success and i wouldn't even take the risk of using it for heating the water changes.

To me it doesn't matter if the heaters are made by Mercedes, if they are dangerous, they are dangerous - period.

Red Sea need to change their suppler before someone gets hurt badly or their tank gets a chunk blown out of it wrecking their house.

I find it hard to understand that they are willing to take the risk of keep supplying them fully aware of the risks, after all there is enough customer feedback on them.

Irresponsible !
 
Bobi1956

Bobi1956

Active Member
I'm not here to flame anyone either - however, I think if you read through the various forums here the experience speaks for itself - the red sea heaters are unreliable and at times have proven to be dangerous. Yes red sea is good about replacing things, but how many should one have to keep on hand - a heater isn't something you can do w/o for very long - we use them in make up water vats, salt mixing buckets and our DT's. They simply have proven to be unreliable and when you have $1000's invested in your tank it's just not worth the risk !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
Reefmack

Reefmack

NaClH2O Addicted
PREMIUM
Kevin - no flames from me either, but my stock heater quit working after a couple months. I had it replaced free by Red Sea, but by then I had a different brand in the tank and stayed with it. As Tammy said, we've had some owners have it fail on setup, some after a few months, and many just aren't comfortable trusting their tanks to another stock heater. Since I no longer trust any heater, of any brand, I now have a separate heater controller to prevent the possibility of overheating.
 
drydens

drydens

Member
IMO most heaters in the trade are a problem. I have gone through most manufactureres and eventually they all have either stuck on or off. About a year ago I switched to a Heater Controller (Can buy em off ebay at good prices). Now temaps are stable in all of my tanks that do not have a chiller. In those, I use the built in heater controller.
 
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