Underperforming heater?

[fishycanuck]

I have a 56G setup with some community fish and some lovely discuss from Evelyn. I found that my 150W heater was only keeping the water at 80 degrees, even when turned up full blast. I brought home a new 200W FluVal yesterday and put it in, turned up to 32C, and the temperature has been steady at 78!
I'm worried about losing my discus. I can understand a heater thermostat not being entirely accurate, but why is a 200W heater, rated up to 65 gallons, underperforming a 150W?
What should I do?

[salvini55]

The exact same thing happened to me aswell. Had a 150w heater on a controller and it would keep my water at 81.1 degrees. bought a new 200w heater, the same brand, set it to the same temp, could only keep the water at 79.8... wierd

[fishycanuck]

The store was willing to let me exchange the heater for a 300W - hope this works! Any comment on the FluVal heater brand?

[djtr]

Im no expert but Iv never had anything from fluval not perform as it was supposed to. So no complaints here