I've just set up a new tank, a 45 gallon column, and everything is going great so far. I've got an underwater dry dome for red claw crabs I plan to introduce and a bunch of open room for other fish.

Now I do have one problem. I have a Top Fin Sun-Like 300 water heater. I want to get the water to be around 78 degrees, but I have no idea what I've got the heater set at. I looked at the instructions and combed through them and it seems like the manufacturer's suggestion is to set it at something random wait until the tank isn't getting any warmer and work from there.

This method is pretty slow, especially with a larger tank and I was hoping someone else out here had a Top Fin heater as well. Is there any way of knowing what you've got the temperature set at?

Thanks in advance.

are you cycling this tank before you add crabs or fish? then you should have plenty of time to play with heater. shouldnt take more then a day or two to get heater just right.
add warm water to get the temp where you want it, then plug in the heater and adjust the pilot till it just goes on

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90 gallon, 1 Iridescent shark, 2 Pleco, 3 Goldfish, 5 Cory cats, 2 Nerite snails
5 gallon hex, Blue Crowntail Betta, 1 nerite snail,

is it an adjustable heater? one of mine has a + and - and you just have to tweak it, the other has a guage on the front where as you turn the knob the red moves up to teh temp its set on.

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"Being ignorant is not so much a Shame, as being unwilling to learn".-- Benjamin Franklin

@Hanky: Nah I conditioned the water and added bacterial supplement. Should be ready to go by Friday which is when I plan to introduce the first few crabs/fish. I'm going to get, I think, 2-3 crabs, a few ghost shrimp, and about 10 fish to start. Don't want to risk dumping a ton of ammonia in it.

As far as the heater goes it doesn't have a pilot, it's electric (unless you don't mean pilot as in pilot light).

@Summer: To a degree. It's got a twist knob at the top but there's no markings on it at all. No + or -, no readout telling me what the temperature is set at, etc.

The only gauge on it is a scale of lights/temperatures and an on/off indicator. But the scale isn't doing anything.

My tank's thermometer reads 68. The light readout on the heater is stubbornly sitting at 'on'

That's a lot of fish/inverts tp start with, definetly don't add ten fish at once and id personally wait to add the crabs and shrimp till after its cycled as they tend to be more sensitive, what are the fish you plan on adding?

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10g- 2 hi-fin fm platys, 3 koi & red wag sword fry
40g Breeder- 6 danios, 4 female swords, 1 male swords
"I was born with nothin and I still got most of it left."- Seasick Steve

It's a 45 gallon tank, aren't you supposed to start with a minimum of 2-3 fish per 10 gallons of water?

Thing is, at least as far as I can tell, there's no hard stop on either end of the spectrum. the knob just keeps turning. Which means there must be a soft stop but I have no idea where that is.

On the good news side I woke up this morning and found out what the heater was set at. 90 degrees. Good thing I didn't have fish in the tank.

I turned it down to what I hope will be 78 degrees.

Yea dont start with that many fish, and in my opinion those bacteria in a bottle solutions arent as good as a ammonia/nitrite/nitrate cycle.

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90 gallon, 1 Iridescent shark, 2 Pleco, 3 Goldfish, 5 Cory cats, 2 Nerite snails
5 gallon hex, Blue Crowntail Betta, 1 nerite snail,

Bottled starters never work right in my experience. I would start with something hardy, like a Betta and a couple neon tetra friends.. Always works for me... Even with the bottled stuff your tank will go through a startup as the bacteria establish themselves in the filter media. you can boost it by adding used media/substrate rocks n stuffs. but starting with a heavy bioload makes it a pain for you... and most times the fish too... It does suck to have to wait, but creates a much better environment for the little ones.

on topic for your post, the best bet is set it and forget it with a tank that size, come back the next day and see. I have a 100 wat in a 10 gal and its set pretty high, though i keep my tanks at 79-80, they sit in a corner in the basement (albeit insulated corner with packing foam to keep the cold cold walls off of the tanks) in Iowa. With the non temp indicating types you justhave to experiment JCC has it right though if you want to try and get the right setting fast.

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When you pay that cash or swipe that card you are making a bond with that animal that you will treat it with love and respect, and its needs will be met, first and foremost (unless you have kids...) I don't care if you have to eat ramen noodles or nothing at all to feed your cat dog fish rat whatever. That's the bond you made! Life is precious!

I have a 40g and I useed 6 danios to get it cycled so you will be fine, if you add that many at once I suspect you'll lose most of them because your levels would spike up very fast

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10g- 2 hi-fin fm platys, 3 koi & red wag sword fry
40g Breeder- 6 danios, 4 female swords, 1 male swords
"I was born with nothin and I still got most of it left."- Seasick Steve

Just added the fish. Three red crabs, 2 Dwarf Gouramis, 3 Honey Sunset Gouramis, a pleco, and three black mystery snails.

Also added in a moneywart plant (the sunset gouramis seem to love it. They're hiding in it now), two underwater bamboo plants, and a scarlet something or other.

The fish seem very active. I let them acclimatize for about half an hour and then dumped them in.