the tank i have has no heater so i got one and it is to hot and even if i turn it lower it is still to hot so i turned it off (no fish are in it) and it is good should i return the heater or keep it?

You need a heater with the proper wattage for your system..... Return it if you can and get one that works

What temperature is to hot? What brand and wattage?

You should pickup a little digital thermometer. Keep your tank at around 78 or so. If the water is not that temp, the thermostat will trigger it on.

thanks

can you buy a heater that doesnt have a thermostat built in? longterm reliability aside, it should function out of the package, even if its a 1000w heater in a 20g tank... might be overkill, but it still should work...

can you buy a heater that doesnt have a thermostat built in? longterm reliability aside, it should function out of the package, even if its a 1000w heater in a 20g tank... might be overkill, but it still should work...

+1 :up:

Not sure if that's the case but yes you can buy heaters with no thermostat.

you sure? checking some random sites I cannot find a single one... there is one called a "preset" heater by hagen for a nano tank... but even that I think still has a thermostat, you just cant adjust it I guess.

You can have a heater without a thermostat. Generally they are made to be paired which a higher end probe style thermostat. I used one to heat my initial fill my 150 before the thermostat came in. It just runs the heater until you unplug. Generally you plug this type of heater into the thermostat and the thermostat turns the power on or off. When you plug in a 500 on up watt heater, generally you want a higher quality thermostat because it can cook your tank quickly. Generally though unless you have a larger tank, going with several lower wattage heaters is safer. I have one 500 watt and 2 300 watt back up's in various spots on different circuits, incase I blow a breaker. Creation has a few of the them in stock with the thermostat controllers. Its worked well for me so far.

I am running a Finnex 500 watt titanium heating element controled by a Aquamedic Thermostat if you want to see one on the net.