Heaters and Filter Questions

Leffler817

Leffler817

CCA Members
Has anyone ever used RENA SMART HEATERS in your tanks? The LFS is clearing them out (cheap) and I don't need a heater, but WTF another heater is the start to another tank setup. :rolleyes: Any experiences and or info about them would be helpful.

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Also, they have under gravel filters for ridiculously cheap $2.59 for a 29 gallon filter! I used them when I was ten years old and kept platys and swordtails but never since. Does anyone use these? Good, bad, avoid like the plague...

Thank you for sharing your knowledge and experiences.
Shawn
 
Tony

Tony

Alligator Snapping Turtle/Past Pres
O'Shea has one of those smart filters and swears by it... no personal experience though. Too expensive for me, even off of the interwebs. If you can find it cheap though.. I say roll with it. :)

Personally, I'm not a fan of UG filter. Too difficult to clean. I've considered trying one in reverse flow before, but never tried it out. I'm a sponge filter man, myself.
 
DiscusnAfricans

DiscusnAfricans

Past President
Love the smart heaters, hate the UG filters. I have smart heaters on my 55, 90, and 120 and they work great. They can also be hooked up to the intake of a Rena canister filter.
 
Prince

Prince

The ONE who is The ONE
Mr. Cowherd uses them. I plan on replacing mine over time with them. How much they going for and what store is it?
 
DonkeyFish

DonkeyFish

Members
Another lover of the smart heaters here. Got one to try out on a tank and LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVED it. Hella reliable, and dead on. Got another to put on the 55 inline with the canister. Awesome.

I don't know what I like best about them, I like that they are black and blend nicer than some white or bright silver shiny thing, I like the informational light that lets you know at a quick glance what's going on temp wise, I like that it's plastic. I REALLY like that it's plastic. I could go on......

And here's how I justified the significant price jump to get the Smart Heater--the box of used heaters I can't trust for whatever reason I keep kicking when I go to my filing cabinet. I'm sick of junk heaters. When you have fish that NEED solid higher temps, well, I at least would rather be safe than sorry with some $20 heater that *should* be good.

Definitely get it. And let me know where they are so I can get more to swap in :)

On UG filters... Funny. Ask 10 people you'll get 10 answers. One side of the fence are the people that think they're awesome because they pull the detritus and stuff down through the gravel into a "holding area" thus giving the bio filter an easier go at doing it's thing, and the other side of the fence are the people that think they're the worst thing in the universe because they pull the detritus and stuff down through the gravel into a "holding area" thus allowing for buildup of toxic gases/ammonia/nitr(a/i)tes that is difficult to clean out. :)

I think there's got to be a reason why the solid trend has pretty undeniably moved away from UG filters. Granted, if everyone jumped off a bridge I wouldn't follow, BUT there's something to be said for marketing trends coming from conventional wisdom which is coming from *somewhere*........

Right? :)
 
Leffler817

Leffler817

CCA Members
Thank you all for the info. My local store is Petsmart :( which sucks cuz its well, Petsmart. Bad quality, bad selection and postal-type employees...

They have three heaters left on clearance two 50w and one 100w. They are $11.97 and $12.97 respectively. The only good thing about their fish selection is the clearance section but only at times. I missed a Marineland powerhead 550 for $21 b/c I wasn't sure what it was or how to use it. Kickin myself for that one. :11doh:

Thanks,
Shawn
 
Leffler817

Leffler817

CCA Members
OK, I went back and picked up the last two heaters they had. I spoke to a manager to ask if all Petsmarts are clearing this stuff out or just this store? She said yes and I could call them to see what they had. So if anyone lives near a Petsmart you may want to hit them up. They also had the RENA smart filters on blowout for $13! I would have gotten one but they were out.
 
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