Best Heater For 2 Gallon?

I picked up a 10 watt Aqueon mini heater for my fiances 2 gallon betta tank. Its a preset heater and supposed to be calibrated for mid 70's but this one has the tank sitting at 85.6! The tank is still cycling so no fish yet. Is there a better option for this size tank???

And please let me settle this before I catch a ton of flack. I know a 2 gallon isn't the ideal betta tank. I wanted to get her a 5 gal, but this is what my fiance wanted cuz it fits on her desk, so its what she got. Happy wife, happy life right? Thanks!

 

Hey 2 gallons well kept tank is way better than what most betta see.... is the heater completely submerged?

 

Thanks! That makes me feel better lol. Yup fully submerged. I put it in the rear filtration compartment so the water flows through it, and so we don't have to look see it in the tank. Maybe I should try mounting it deeper in the compartment?

It's set up with a java moss wall, anubius nana and more moss attached to driftwood and a dwarf Lilly.

 

What do you mean by filtration compartment? The heater should be mounted in the tank itself.

 

The tank has a built in filtration compartment in the rear. It pulls water through the bottom of the back wall and the water is pumped back in over the top of the wall. The heater sits to the left of the discharge.

You can see the heater to the left of the discharge.

 

I advise you to return the heater. It should have a thermometer with a cutoff of 78°. From what I can tell it's been placed right. At least you didn't cook that betta lol

 

I'm past the return time so I'll just get something else. I'm thinking maybe a different brand. Any suggestions? Thankfully there isn't a fish in there yet.

 

I advise you to return the heater. It should have a thermometer with a cutoff of 78°. From what I can tell it's been placed right. At least you didn't cook that betta lol

Honestly the smallest one you can find will do. The cheaper versions are set to 78°(which is good for betta)

Also, never plug the heater in unless it is completely submerged.

 

Oh I know lol. I've been in this wonderful hobby for a loooooong time. I usually don't mess with small tanks though. Thanks for your help though it's greatly appreciated.

 

I would not recommend the small Top Fin Betta heaters. They cycle off well before the preset temperature is reached.

I am surprised to see that high temperatures with only 10 watts. I need 40 watts to maintain 78* in a 2 gallon tank

 

I have to disagree. I have a TopFin Betta heater in my 3.5 gallon tank and it keeps the temperature at a steady 77-78 degrees just as it's designed to do. The thermometer is on the opposite side of the tank from the heater. I would say they work very well and they are only 20 watts. It says it's for tanks up to 2.5 gallons but it does the job fine in my 3.5. My room temperature is 69-70F

 

Yeah there has to be something majorly wrong with this heater. I'm leaving it unplugged for now as we still don't have a fish in there yet anyway. A local fish store actually recommended putting the heater on a timer to come on only at night when it gets cooler in the house. I might try that with a different heater.

 

Yes, they will maintain 78 if you are close to that temperature. If you have temperature drops in the tank the Top Fin Betta heaters will not stay on until 78 is reached. They will cycle on and off for hours until they finally reach 78.

I learned this the hard way a cold winter morning waking up with a tank at 65 and my poor Betta sitting on top of the heater trying to get warm.

 

How could the tank ever hit 65? What is the temp in your house? Personally, I have to have the house at at least 68 and even then I'm wearing a sweatshirt and a sweater. It can go down to 15 below zero here but the house will still be at 68.

If the tank temperature went that low I would expect any heater to cycle on and off while raising it. The water around the heater warms up and it shuts off. The water circulates and it goes back on. especially in a Betta tank where the circulation should be low. When I set up my tank, the water started at about 72 and it took the heater about 3 hours to raise it to 77. It cycled on and off many times which I considered to be perfectly normal.

 

This is my heater placement. You can see it's close to the filter intake with the outflow above near the center of the tank. You can also see that the thermometer is on the opposite side of the tank. It works good like this. Of course Benny had to do a photo bomb. He always come to where he sees me.

WP_20180426_16_40_39_Pro by Dch48 posted Apr 26, 2018 at 4:58 PM

 

While I am not a physicist I do have a basic understanding of aquarium equipment and the heat transfer properties of water. Thank you so much for your comments however.

 

I actually had that sane exact problem when I set up a hospital tank. I did end up only using it at night, and thankfully only needed the tank for a week. Now that the temps have risen here in OH my 10 gal got too warm so I replaced it's heater with this one LOL.

 

It's been warm here (finally) so I've left the heater unplugged. Tank ranges from 76-83 even without the heater.

We finally got a betta for it yesterday. A beautiful little pearlescent dumbo my fiance named Lord Frederic Dumbo the 1st or Fred for short.