Dual heater configuration recommends

[Gho5t]

I'm looking to replace my heaters and was wondering if you all had some suggestions on the configuration for redundancy. I have a 80G cube (100G total volume) and am running 2 Eheim Jagers at the moment. A few months ago I picked up an Apex and put one of the heaters on the EB832 and the other on an unmanaged power strip. The one on the unmanged power strip decided to get stuck on this weekend, so other then letting me know bad things were about to happen, the Apex had no control. So now I'm looking to get away from glass heaters and go titanium and I've come up with a few scenarios, each with their pro/con.

Option 1) Helio PTC 400 (dual 200W) plugged into a single EB832 outlet
Option 2) 2 BRS Titanium 200W plugged into two EB832 outlets
Option 3) 1 BRS Titanium 200W plugged into single EB832 Outlet & a Helio PTC 200 (single 200W) into unmanaged power strip.

I can find points of failure with each of these scenarios, but I'm leaning towards option 1. My reasoning is that the EB832 outlet will act more as a safety net than a controller on its own. If there is an issue with the Apex, I can default the outlet to ON knowing that the Helio should still handle things as expected. The main issue here is if the Helio controller fails, but then the Apex will keep it from going out of range.

Option two is just less equipment without the additional controller, which I really like since all my equipment is in my stand and it is packed right now. I'm resorting to screwing things to the doors at this point. I feel like this would be almost as reliable as option 1 except for the case where the Apex looses connectivity, where I would probalby just default the heaters to off.

Option 3 is closer to what I'm running now, but it still has the issue where if the non-managed outlet heater fails, there's nothing I can do other than to be alerted. I was originally thinking that 2 independant controllers, Apex and Helio, would be beneficial, but I don't know that I'm actually gaining anything here and option 1 still seems like a better choice.

I know there's some opinions out there so let's hear 'em

Thanks...

 

[Jekyl]

I would get a controller to manage both.

 

[monkeyCmonkeyDo]

I recently went to use my finnex 500w titanium heater elements to find both were dead. I went with the ehiem jager 300w. A $50 heating element should just fail. Im disappointed. I love their 800w dial controllers though.
D

 

[monkeyCmonkeyDo]

Shouldnt*

 

[Gho5t]

oof... I was looking at finnex as well. I had heard good things, but nothing is bullet proof. I've had a Cobalt literally explode on me.. smoke and black goo everywhere... and then I've had these Eheim for years with no issue till this past weekend. Just looking to change things up at this point with something I have more control over.

 

[Jekyl]

I use eheim heaters and an inkbird controller. Both have been great.

 

[ca1ore]

Figure out what your peak heat wattage is. In my case, it's 1,000 watts. Divide that number by two/three and have three/four heaters of that value. That way, temp can be maintained in both fail OFF and fail ON situations. I personally prefer heaters with internal thermostats to provide another level of redundancy. My four EBJ 300 heaters are all controlled by my Apex though I have a separate 800 finnex controlled by a Ranco as emergency backup. Should the Apex get stuck on and the internal heater thermostats all fail, my chiller will kick on until i can remedy the fault.

 

[NewFish]

I went with 2x200w Helio on a 40gb. The tank is full tilt Apex. Still in the dry rock curing phase so I'll have a few months on the heaters before they work to keep my fish and coarls alive.

 

[NormanB]

I went with 2 300w titanium heaters from BRS and put them on an Inkbird dual heater controller.

This is for a system total of 80 gallons. Been running for just shy of 1.5 years and so far no issues.

 

[Bruce60]

I am wondering why have two heaters when you have a controller? I have a 150 display and am using a single heater plugged into the Apex. I have alarms set to warn me if the tank gets too hot or cold. I have a backup heater on hand. If I get an alarm that the tank has gotten cold and it turns out the heater has failed, I can change the heater out within hours. And the tank can only cool as much as the surrounding room. That's as high as 75 in the summer (no issues at all) and 65 in the winter (will take some time for water to cool that much, especially if you're adding heat from pumps and lights). Why run the risk of having an uncontrolled heater?

 

[Gho5t]

The benefit of two heaters is mainly redundancy. If we go on vacation, even if I'm having someone watch the house and feed the fish I'm not going to be there to swap the heater, and I wouldn't expect, nor want, the person watching the house to have to deal with that.

I ended up going with option 1, but updated the wattage to the Helio PTC 2x350w for my 100G. It has two heaters plugged into a single controller and that controller is plugged into a managed outlet on my Apex energy bar. This way the Helio manages the temp and the Apex is only there to turn it off it for some reason it goes out of range.

I love it.. here is my temp fluctuation going from having dual Ehiem Jaeger 200W to the Helio PTC. It's rock solid now!

 

[TexanReefer]

The key is that you want 2-3 heaters that are not capable of heating your tank fully on their own. Fish/Coral can survive cooler temps, but will die quickly if overheated.

If one gets stuck on, then your tank would be fine, because it can't overheat off of a single heater being stuck on.

If one gets stuck off, then your tank will slowly decrease in temp as the one heater struggles to maintain your desired temp, but this fluctuation shouldn't be drastic enough to where your tank would cool enough before you could fix the situation.

with 3 heaters you are basically golden, as you would need 2 heaters to simultaneously get stuck in the on/off position