Heater and controller help

[Crabby48]

I am starting my first tank and got all my equipment figured out except heaters and controllers. The more I read the more confused I am.
They will be fore 110 gallon system and my house in the winter is about 60-64 degrees.

Would 2 300 watt or 300 200 watt be a good choice?

Seems heaters are a replaceable item so not sure if brand makes much of a difference?
Was looking at cobalt, finnex
Are the controller on the cobalt neotherms good?
Is the digital controller for the finnex good?
What is recommended controller for the heaters?

Would like to keep it simple and reliable so the cobalt neotherms are appealing

 

[Big G]

I am starting my first tank and got all my equipment figured out except heaters and controllers. The more I read the more confused I am.
They will be fore 110 gallon system and my house in the winter is about 60-64 degrees.

Would 2 300 watt or 300 200 watt be a good choice?

Seems heaters are a replaceable item so not sure if brand makes much of a difference?
Was looking at cobalt, finnex
Are the controller on the cobalt neotherms good?
Is the digital controller for the finnex good?
What is recommended controller for the heaters?

Would like to keep it simple and reliable so the cobalt neotherms are appealing

I have a finex heater and the separate finnex controller. Steady temp. Works fine. The temp reading is off by 3 degrees. So it says 81 on the controller, but it's actually 78 in the tank by several different measurements. Seems to be common with this controller. But it holds the temp steady. So it's ok by me.

 

[Crabby48]

I have a finex heater and the separate finnex controller. Steady temp. Works fine. The temp reading is off by 3 degrees. So it says 81 on the controller, but it's actually 78 in the tank by several different measurements. Seems to be common with this controller. But it holds the temp steady. So it's ok by me.

Is the controller Hc 810m or the max 300 ?

 

[Kershaw]

If your not using an apex or similar to control temp I would highly recommend something like this.

https://www.marinedepot.com/Aqua_Lo...er_Aquariums-Aqua_Logic-AL1713-FITETC-vi.html

I would go with two 300 watt.

 

[Crabby48]

If your not using an apex or similar to control temp I would highly recommend something like this.

https://www.marinedepot.com/Aqua_Lo...er_Aquariums-Aqua_Logic-AL1713-FITETC-vi.html

I would go with two 300 watt.

I will not be using an apex at first. I will look into your link.

Thanks to everyone that helps on reef2reef

 

[deedubz]

For my upcoming upgrade I bought two finnex heaters and an inkbird dual heater controller. I had to get it on Amazon as brs only sells the 1 heat 1 cool controller. I intend to set one at my desired temp and the second 2 degrees below. This will let me know if my larger heater malfunctions. In theory the controller will shut either off if they were to get stuck "on"

 

[deedubz]

I guess the other benefit to the inkbird controller is you plug both heaters in directly to it..Freeing up an outlet on your power strip/Apex/Ghl, etc

 

[Crabby48]

I guess the other benefit to the inkbird controller is you plug both heaters in directly to it..Freeing up an outlet on your power strip/Apex/Ghl, etc

Would it be better having one ink bird for each heater? Won’t you lose the redundancy? If the ink bird fails to supply power wouldn’t you lose both heaters? Maybe I am over thinking it

 

[deedubz]

Would it be better having one ink bird for each heater? Won’t you lose the redundancy? If the ink bird fails to supply power wouldn’t you lose both heaters? Maybe I am over thinking it

Well shoot... Guess I didn't think that one all the way through

 

[Crabby48]

Well shoot... Guess I didn't think that one all the way through

Sorry. Guessing that would be a small chance of failure. It would only be an issue for a few months in the winter.
So I guess the important part of heater selection is to have a heater with controller hooked up to additional controller.
One is none and 2 is one

 

[Crabby48]

I like clean simple and organized. Having all these ugly bulky controllers for heaters make that hard. Having a ocd overload lol

 

[Big G]

Is the controller Hc 810m or the max 300 ?

It's the HC 810M.

 

[Forsaken77]

If your not using an apex or similar to control temp I would highly recommend something like this.

https://www.marinedepot.com/Aqua_Lo...er_Aquariums-Aqua_Logic-AL1713-FITETC-vi.html

I would go with two 300 watt.

I would agree that is a great controller choice, but for heaters only the single stage would be better because it provides more watts instead of splitting it with a chiller side.

I personally use the American Marine Pinpoint Temp Controller and it's super accurate and keeps the temp in the tank within 1 degree (+/- 0.5). But it's a dual stage and limits the watt usage, though it would be fine for a 110.

Whichever controller you go with, try to stay away from the cheap Chinese ones. They're as reliable as the heaters themselves.

You just need to put a short splitter dongle cord on the input of the controller to use multiple heaters.

 

[Crabby48]

I would agree that is a great controller choice, but for heaters only the single stage would be better because it provides more watts instead of splitting it with a chiller side.

I personally use the American Marine Pinpoint Temp Controller and it's super accurate and keeps the temp in the tank within 1 degree (+/- 0.5). But it's a dual stage and limits the watt usage, though it would be fine for a 110.

Whichever controller you go with, try to stay away from the cheap Chinese ones. They're as reliable as the heaters themselves.

You just need to put a short splitter dongle cord on the input of the controller to use multiple heaters.

I looked in to both controllers. Im little confused with the splitter?
Will these controllers allow me to use just a heater and not a heater with controller built in.
I like these options a lot more,

 

[Kershaw]

In my experience built in controls are not Good at maintaining tempature.
By using one with a remote probe it will give the tempature of the water farther away in the system. I personally like my sensor near the over flow or inside of it. If the probe is close to the heater the heater will run more often. I may be wrong about this my theory kinda comes from havc. But I have had success with it. I always set the temp on the heater around 84 as a back up.
Basically if the heater in sump is self contained the heater will heat to let’s say 80. Then the colder water coming from display will cool it down then the heater comes on again, and this continues. On off on off and so forth.
If the heater is in sump and the probe is in overflow. The heater will continue to heat all the water as the water is pumped into the display mixed with other water in display then more of the water is heated so in theory the heater will cycle on and off less.

 

[Crabby48]

In my experience built in controls are not Good at maintaining tempature.
By using one with a remote probe it will give the tempature of the water farther away in the system. I personally like my sensor near the over flow or inside of it. If the probe is close to the heater the heater will run more often. I may be wrong about this my theory kinda comes from havc. But I have had success with it. I always set the temp on the heater around 84 as a back up.
Basically if the heater in sump is self contained the heater will heat to let’s say 80. Then the colder water coming from display will cool it down then the heater comes on again, and this continues. On off on off and so forth.
If the heater is in sump and the probe is in overflow. The heater will continue to heat all the water as the water is pumped into the display mixed with other water in display then more of the water is heated so in theory the heater will cycle on and off less.

I fully agree with you keeping probe in over flow and heater in sump. It was my thought also.
Thanks for the help

 

[Philt56]

I have the cobalt neotherm 300w in my sump. Running a constant 78. I had it plugged into a finnex controller as a safety monitor. I set the controller to 82 and its temperature readout says 78, so theoretically it should power the heater unless it overheats the water. But I saw that it would still turn off after 8 hours of so. It has an led that is lit if the power cord is active. Not sure if it’s a safety thing where it won’t keep power on for long stretches of time? But Finnex support had no idea what was happening and couldn’t answer why this happens. And I haven’t heard anything on my RMA request. So I just have the heater plugged into a regular outlet and will just use the Finnex as an alarm if water overheats.

I did see that when the controller outlet turned off with the heater plugged into it, that the led on the heater would flash vs just turn off. Cobalt support said that the controller outlet was probably a triac and will trickle low power. They said that this could cause problems with the heaters thermostat lifespan and didn’t recommend it. They mentioned if the heater was plugged into an apex that it should be plugged into one of the mechanical relay outlets.

If you use the Finnex controller, just plug the Finnex titanium heaters that don’t have any thermostat built in.

 

[Forsaken77]

I looked in to both controllers. Im little confused with the splitter?
Will these controllers allow me to use just a heater and not a heater with controller built in.
I like these options a lot more,

Every heater has some sort of thermostat at the very least built into the heater itself (unless you buy just a titanium heater that requires a controller, like Won Brothers). Don't get one with an external controller built to it. You just set the heaters internal thermostat (which is a knob on the top) slightly higher than what you want the controller to keep the water at. So that way, when the controller needs to kick on the heaters, the actual heater will always go on because it thinks the water is much colder than where it's set to. Likewise, the controller will cut power to the heaters so they can't act on their own.

THIS IS THE SPLITTER for 2 heaters to plug into a controller that I was talking about.

A dual stage controller will have a power port for a heater and a separate port for a chiller. A single stage is just for heaters and can go with higher wattages. You just plug that splitter into the heaters power port on the controller and then plug your heaters into the split ends.

 

[Forsaken77]

I have the cobalt neotherm 300w in my sump. Running a constant 78. I had it plugged into a finnex controller as a safety monitor. I set the controller to 82 and its temperature readout says 78, so theoretically it should power the heater unless it overheats the water. But I saw that it would still turn off after 8 hours of so. It has an led that is lit if the power cord is active. Not sure if it’s a safety thing where it won’t keep power on for long stretches of time? But Finnex support had no idea what was happening and couldn’t answer why this happens. And I haven’t heard anything on my RMA request. So I just have the heater plugged into a regular outlet and will just use the Finnex as an alarm if water overheats.

I did see that when the controller outlet turned off with the heater plugged into it, that the led on the heater would flash vs just turn off. Cobalt support said that the controller outlet was probably a triac and will trickle low power. They said that this could cause problems with the heaters thermostat lifespan and didn’t recommend it. They mentioned if the heater was plugged into an apex that it should be plugged into one of the mechanical relay outlets.

If you use the Finnex controller, just plug the Finnex titanium heaters that don’t have any thermostat built in.

I would think you either have a bad heater, or you don't have enough wattage heating your tank. Because it shouldn't take the heater anywhere near 8 hours to keep your tank at a constant temp unless you live in the Arctic, lol.

But I also think BRS did a video where the Neo-Therm takes a very long time to get the temp up, but keeps it very stable when it is up. But if it's near the proper temp and then needs to kick on to raise the temp a degree or two, it shouldn't take 8 hours.

 

[Crabby48]

Every heater has some sort of thermostat at the very least built into the heater itself (unless you buy just a titanium heater that requires a controller, like Won Brothers). Don't get one with an external controller built to it. You just set the heaters internal thermostat (which is a knob on the top) slightly higher than what you want the controller to keep the water at. So that way, when the controller needs to kick on the heaters, the actual heater will always go on because it thinks the water is much colder than where it's set to. Likewise, the controller will cut power to the heaters so they can't act on their own.

THIS IS THE SPLITTER for 2 heaters to plug into a controller that I was talking about.

A dual stage controller will have a power port for a heater and a separate port for a chiller. A single stage is just for heaters and can go with higher wattages. You just plug that splitter into the heaters power port on the controller and then plug your heaters into the split ends.

Thank you so much. You steered me in the direction I was trying to find.