Double heater questions

[Raptor72]

I recently picked up one of these double heater mounts and have a few questions. I plan to mount it in my sump horizontally.

1. Should the heaters be staggered or are they fine directly above one another?

2. Should the primary heater be on the top or bottom? This is in reference to how they are set up to turn on, on the Apex.

TIA

 

[WestMI-Reefer]

I see no problem with mounting them horizontally. I don't think you have to worry about them making contact with each other because your holder has 2 contact points (even if they did, probably not a worry). Is this a space saving effort, or trying to make sure the heaters stay fully submerged? either way, Go for it! The apex will recognize the heaters individually so it won't matter which is on top or bottom.

 

[Raptor72]

I see no problem with mounting them horizontally. I don't think you have to worry about them making contact with each other because your holder has 2 contact points (even if they did, probably not a worry). Is this a space saving effort, or trying to make sure the heaters stay fully submerged? either way, Go for it! The apex will recognize the heaters individually so it won't matter which is on top or bottom.

Thanks for the input. I don't like the suction cup mounts that they come with as they don't last very long underwater. They're Ebo Jager 300w and I just want to make sure they stay out of the way of anything else in the sump. I wasn't sure if the heat from one would trigger the thermostat of the second. I've looked up a pretty good program for the Apex on the Neptune Forum for double heaters.

 

[SpyC]

I have my heaters set to the same temp and the apex turns both on/off at the same time. No issues here.

 

[All_talk]

Horizontal will be fine. I don't think position (top or bottom) will matter as long as there is some flow around them.

Personally I like to keep the top of the heaters above the water line just in case the seal fails, one less thing to worry about. Mine sit at an angle, mostly because that's the way they fit best.

For programing I run one as the "Main" and one as "Aux" (both the same size), they are staggered to come on and off in stages. Typically my tank temp varies less than one degree.

I think getting the wattage right is somewhat important. Most of the time one of my heaters is just enough, but the second will come in if the room temp is less than normal, so if one fails open the other will keep the tank in a safe range. Also, my cooling fans can remove enough heat to keep up with one heater, so if one fails closed the tank won't overheat. The thermostats built into the heater are set just above the APEX settings so they work as a safety if the controller try's to cook the tank.

 

[InactiveAcct]

Horizontal will be fine. I don't think position (top or bottom) will matter as long as there is some flow around them.

Personally I like to keep the top of the heaters above the water line just in case the seal fails, one less thing to worry about. Mine sit at an angle, mostly because that's the way they fit best.

For programing I run one as the "Main" and one as "Aux" (both the same size), they are staggered to come on and off in stages. Typically my tank temp varies less than one degree.

I think getting the wattage right is somewhat important. Most of the time one of my heaters is just enough, but the second will come in if the room temp is less than normal, so if one fails open the other will keep the tank in a safe range. Also, my cooling fans can remove enough heat to keep up with one heater, so if one fails closed the tank won't overheat. The thermostats built into the heater are set just above the APEX settings so they work as a safety if the controller try's to cook the tank.

+1 the top of the heater was my concern too. Not all models are fully submersible and even if they are I don’t trust the seals, even more if there’s a dial on top to set temp vs a heating element without temp adjustment. That said I think most folks just have them on the bottom of their sumps