Best Heater?

[motortrendz]

I have 2 finnex titanium heaters for redundancy both running of a separate controller. One is set 1 degree below the other incase one fails off the other will kick on. Bit neither will go above the high temb bc they're both set on the controller. I never trust any kind of glass heater or one with an internal thermostat.

 

[SALTY 75]

They have the regular none wired(DIY) units on sale for a little less that are in stock so I'd imagine they will have more pre-wired units any day now.

I don't think you can beat that price for a pre-wired unit, I think I paid that price for a regular non wired unit a few years back. They are absolutely worth the investment...

ok thank you i will be watching that website intensly now. you all have been a very big help.

 

[SALTY 75]

I have 2 finnex titanium heaters for redundancy both running of a separate controller. One is set 1 degree below the other incase one fails off the other will kick on. Bit neither will go above the high temb bc they're both set on the controller. I never trust any kind of glass heater or one with an internal thermostat.

yes i wish i would have thought about this before i feel really stupid for nopt doing so. What do you recomend for running two heaters on one tank are they both the same size and one is just a fail safe or are they both half the recommended size and running together?

 

[SALTY 75]

o rely damm guess i'm pushing my luck glad I hopped on thread ty now im off to invest

yeah i woke up today to fish breathing hard and all the inverts looking bad or dead. My tank was 90+ degrees. I, like you had the same heater for about five years then it stopped working and the tank got really cold, but everything didnt die. so then i went and bought a cheap one just as a temporary fix and it failed and stay on for like 24hours.

 

[SALTY 75]

i am looking at ink birds right now.

 

[motortrendz]

i am looking at ink birds right now.

Brs has their own version of the ink bird. Heard it's pretty good for the money.

 

[PeanutWorms]

Thanks alot, sounds like i will be going with a finnex titanium heater. Do you guys recommend a chiller? If there are already a ton of threads on this then if someone links it or something ill check it out.

I use the Arctica Titanium chiller. Been working for years.

 

[CavalierReef]

I like Finnex Titanium. I under size and double up for redundancy. Does it cost more sure. Does it offer the protection I need, sure. I'm a firm believer in you get what you pay for. I would guess the single most failed item in an aquarium is the heater.

Could not agree more!

 

[lvzx14]

ok thank you i will be watching that website intensly now. you all have been a very big help.

fwiw I reached out to them and they do have the pre-wired units in stock, they just have yet to update the website. I was curious myself as I need to replace the inkbird controller on my mixing station.

 

[BeejReef]

It's as much about how you set it up as the hardware itself.

Fail off is a bummer and could be a major prob if you don't notice or on a week-long vacation.
Fail on, as you saw, kills everything while you sleep or are at work.

The week point for the controller is the temp probe. For the heater, it's the thermostat relay that can fail to make a connection (stuck off) or weld itself connected (stuck on). Whether it's an apex to a temp controller to a heating element.. OR.. a temp controller to a heater's integrated thermostat, to the heating element.. you want at least one redundancy.

Then, there's a couple ways to do it. 1) set your temp controller to 79 and your heater to 80 and let the temp controller relay and probe handle the switching on/off. If the temp controller fails, you should still max out at 80... or 2) set your heater to 79 and your temp probe to cut power at 81. That lets your heater's relay handle most of the on/off switching and the temp probe acts as the safeguard to "stuck on."

Some will connect one temp controller to another to a heater with a thermostat, all driven by an apex. While that will make a "fail on" next to impossible, IMHO, it also makes a "fail off" more likely. Anytime the furthest upstream probe fails, you risk losing power to everything downstream.... plus the complexity begs for human error.

 

[warpdrvr]

Maybe someone with a 75 gallon tank can chime in and let you know what size heaters they run.

I have a 75 gallon with a cheaper 300 watt submersible inside, and a BRS 300 watt in the sump, both connected to the Inkbird. Working great. One of these heaters heats the tank well, but I like the redundancy of 2 units set a degree apart

 

[GreekGoddess]

This thread was right on time. I have a 120 gallon mixed reef that has been running on Eheim heater without issues for almost 2 years. I was manually checking temp during my twice daily checks....no temp controller. No issues.

Needless to say, now upgrading heater and adding a temp controller.

 

[KrisReef]

Bumping this thread.

It's that time of year again. Short days, long nights, and crazy temperature swings if the heater isn't firing, or a new hot tub where your reef was if it sticks on without a controller.

 

[92Miata]

They're all trash.


Heaters with internal thermostats always fail on.
Glass heaters explode if taken out of the water while on, or put in other situations where they're allowed to significantly raise local temperature.
Titanium heaters often have rivets/internal parts that are not titanium and this causes galvanic corrosion. Its also common for them to end up leaking voltage.


Run a grounding probe and a GFCI. Run a temp controller. Count on the fact that heaters are going to fail - most usually on - and account for the fact that runaway heating is way worse than no heating.