Boiled my tank!

[ChrisKSB]

Woke up last week to a lot of death and a really hot tank (95 deg). It was heartbreaking and I truly felt like a complete idiot for not having a controller for my heater! I bought what I thought was a nice heater and figured I wouldn't need to worry about it. Now I'm reading a bunch of posts of heater controllers being a MUST!
I now am using the Ink Bird ITC-306A and every time I look at it on the controller or on my phone I just feel a sigh of relief.

Only reason I'm posting is for anyone else new like me - just want to reiterate to you that the small price of a controller can save a huge amount of money, frustration and heartache WHEN your heater fails.

 

[Rollman]

Sorry for the losses. if you have done this long enough things happen to many . Glad you learned

 

[ying yang]

Sorry about your mishap

I'm in same camp/ thinking as you used to be thinking I have 2 x 300 watt heaters on my 100g total water volume tank and all will be well and in 14 years if having tanks and using same heater in some tanks for several years,I think all will be well.
Well that is until have a catosphre and think why didn't I get that cheap controller and usually things go wrong when we sleeping or out the house when " sods law" kicks In.
Once again sorry about your tank and hope you get it back to running how you want with as little problems as possible

 

[Harold999]

Now don't make the next misstake by using a heater without it's own built-in thermostat (many people use those titanium-without-thermostat heaters with their controllers) because controllers can fail too.
Set the built-in thermostat of the heater 2 degrees higher than the controller so you will know when the controller is failing (stuck in heating mode).

Extra tip: place the temperature probe of the controller in a different compartment than where the heater is. In this case you will be warned also when your return pump fails.
When the pump fails, the temperature in the probe compartment will drop which triggers your warning alerts.

 

[Projects with Sam]

I've been running without a controller since November. Just got my InkBird in the mail yesterday. Feel much more secure - serendipitous I saw your post just now.

 

[blaxsun]

I currently run a pair of titanium heaters off an Inkbird but I have an Apex as an overseer and a tertiary heater as a backup.

 

[Harold999]

I currently run a pair of titanium heaters off an Inkbird but I have an Apex as an overseer and a tertiary heater as a backup.

Problem with those titanium heaters is that they don't have their own built-in thermostat, so you basically have no back-up safety in case your controller gets stuck in heating mode while you are away from home and can't act quickly on a alert.

 

[EricR]

Sucks man,,, very sorry.
Yeah -- redundancy for heaters for sure. (Personally, I'm using 2x Eheim heaters for temp regulation into CHEAPER InkBird ITC-306T only for temp monitoring and over-heat fail safe shut off,,, but whatever works).

Good luck and, again, sorry...

 

[polyppal]

I have several redundancies in my heaters,
I use two ‘higher end’ Eheim thermocontrols (set to 80) a 200w and a 100w - controlled by my hydros.

The 200 handles any major heat fluctuations while the 100 tunes it to stay in the 79 range. They auto shut off and a loud alarm goes off if something dramatic happens

 

[Miami Reef]

I don’t even use a heater in my tank lol. My effort is spent cooling the tank. I use a chiller. I can understand how using a heater has its own challenges. Redundancies are important!

 

[blaxsun]

Problem with those titanium heaters is that they don't have their own built-in thermostat, so you basically have no back-up safety in case your controller gets stuck in heating mode while you are away from home and can't act quickly on a alert.

That's why I run my Inkbird off the Apex system so it can kill it if the heaters ever get stuck on.

 

[907_Reefer]

For around $40, it's a must have! Mine is in the mail also