Problems with tetra 2-15 G heater?

[mjbn]

Well i bought this off recommendation off this site and it works great to get the water temp to 78, but it automatically turns off(actual feature of the heater, not the problem). The problem is that after a couple hours, the water temp drops to 75-76 degrees and i get a little worried, hoping that the heater will turn back on and heat it up, but noppe. Anyone else have this problem? is there a faulty manufacturing on mine with it reading the temp for when to turn on and off?

[Adastra]

Preset heaters tend to be of fairly poor quality--due to the fluctuations it is causing this heater is a danger to your betta. I would remove it and return it to the store--it may be defective. I would get a 25 watt adjustable heater with a good thermostat.

[mjbn]

Yeah, luckily my betta isn't in the tank rightnow. He's in a 1.5 rightnow while the 5.5G is cycling. Any heater recommended instore for less than $23? Idk if i can wait for standard ground shipig(a week) to get a heater cuz the temp in san jose is really flutuating from day and night. Water temp dropped 6 degrees over night and when i woke up, temp was 74.

[mjbn]

I'm looking into the Marineland visi-therm 25 watt but i can't seem to find it. I looked at the online sites for petco, petsmart, walmart, but nothing. But online i keep reading reviews on those sites about the 25 watt even though the lowest online is 50 watt. Maybe they have it instore but not online?

[Adastra]

I wouldn't expect to see it in the store if it wasn't online--even my local fish specialty store is not a reliable source for these small heaters--the truth is that they make more of a profit off of the little cheap ones, so they prefer to sell those even though they are of a lower quality. I would call the store and ask if they have the heater you want in stock before wasting your time going out and looking for them.

If you can't find any, I still think you should order online. It's better to get the right item than to get a crappy one because you're in a hurry--adding a heater like the one you got probably would have done more harm than good.

[mjbn]

I know, me too. It's weird though cuz the reviews on petco have people talking about buying the 25 watt when buying the 25 watt online isn't even an option to be chosen cuz theres no 25 watt online at all!-_-

And yeah, I'm thinking about that now. I did some searching and i'd spend about $37 on a hydor 25 watt heater and an API testing master kit after returning my old heater. That seems pretty decent cuz the API kit is about $30 instores. Thinking about it though.

[sjones]

I got my 25 watt marineland stealth online at amazon.com- I just pmed you the info, BTW they sell them at my LFS for $35, so I ordered it online for $26...

[SaylorKennedy]

I'd just get a reliable 50w heather then. Visitherm is good as well as the stealths. My stealth works great and I've had them in 2.5 gallons. That way if you ever upgrade too you won't have to worry about if the heater is strong enough.

[Lion Mom]

Or you can look on Ebay for them - that's where I got mine.

[1fish2fish]

They have stealths in my petsmarts. I'm not sure if they have visitherms.

I use topfin heaters. They're adjustable but don't have a temperature setting, just a low-high setting. They're also almost as cheap as the preset heaters but work really well IME. A 25 watt would probably be about $17.