[aquaverde]

I have one of the 300W models on my 65, running for only a month. It's very nice so far, exactly what I hoped it would be. The temperature stays rock solid in a 65 degree room at a setting of 76 degrees. I will raise it some just to see what it is able to do.

I suspect the esthetic advantage of this product would not be so important to a tank in a garage or basement, so might not be much of a disadvantage.

 

[aquaverde]

It's going to be a function of the power rating. My 300W Hydor is doing fine now at 78 deg. (13 above ambient on a 65g with about 53g of water and the rest hardscape. It is not even breaking a sweat, which is what I would expect. If it did anything else, I would be dissing it as a lousy product. If I put it on a 300g tank I don't expect it to maintain 13deg above ambient. That's too much tank. Really, to specify correctly it is necessary to include the size of the tank that's being heated. I used a 300W titanium on a 30g in my unheated garage last year during the dead of winter. I placed the tank on a laminated 3"-thick maple workbench top and covered the sides with cut up styrofoam sheet insulation. The heater ran almost constantly to keep the tank warm. Ambient temp had to be in the neighborhood of 50 or so degrees below the tank setting at least part of the time. That heater is capable of frying a 30g inside.

 

[aquaverde]

Actually, here's some justification for you, Andrew. If you had said C instead of F, your delta T of 10 degrees would have been spot on the spec for the 300W. That's what the owner's manual calls out- 10C (for 48-66gal.)

Novel concept, checking the owner's manual. I'll try to remember that in the future...