Heater Redundancy

[LadyTang2]

Heating is an area I feel the least confident about with my new build. I have a hard time believing the cheap temp probes on an inkbird are very accurate. How accurate is the apex probe and does it require any sort of calibration?

I've read about people using water heaters and heat exchangers which sounded interesting but no redundancy, what other unique heating solutions are out there and how are they redundant?

 

[Schnizzle]

My only contribution is regarding the InkBird probes. While going through the uglies with algae covering everything I went through two sets of probes. I don't know if this was due to the algae or chance but they started to really stray off temperature. I have a calibration thermometer that I verify occasionally and I use to verify my reef. The probes were cheap enough to replace so I didn't try any of the tricks to recover them. The uglies stopped around the same time I installed my third set of probes and I haven't had any trouble out of this set since I installed them around June of 2019.

 

[o2manyfish]

Ranco is the goto product for Heat / Cool control. These are commercial controllers - Unless you submerge them - They don't fail. I have a couple that have been outside in the elements for 10+ years without a problem. Using a pair of these to control a pair of independent heaters, which are on 2 different electrical circuits, and making sure that either heater can handle the load of the tank is the safest method for the heating option. Use an Apex to watch the temp and alert you - But trust the Ranco's to run the heaters.

 

[Silly clownfish]

Regardless of how you control, I strongly recommend using 2 undersized heaters instead of one that can handle the task on its own. That way if one fails on, it hopefully will not be able to catastrophically overheat the tank, or if one fails off, there is still some heating occuring. Obviously room temperature comes into play in failure scenarios.

so say you compute you need at least 250 watts of heater, instead of one 250 watts heater, I would get 2 150 watt. I keep one in my overflow and one in the sump, with the temperature probe on my Apex in the farthest chamber of my sump. I have the on/ temps on the heaters set one degree off. so I have 3 thermostats operating - one on each heater and one on the Apex.

 

[LadyTang2]

Ranco is the goto product for Heat / Cool control. These are commercial controllers - Unless you submerge them - They don't fail. I have a couple that have been outside in the elements for 10+ years without a problem. Using a pair of these to control a pair of independent heaters, which are on 2 different electrical circuits, and making sure that either heater can handle the load of the tank is the safest method for the heating option. Use an Apex to watch the temp and alert you - But trust the Ranco's to run the heaters.

thanks, which model do you have? Can you link to it?

 

[LadyTang2]

I see a ranco online but is there one for liquids and one for air? Or can the same one be used for either, can you submerge the wire portion too?

 

[ZoWhat]

Heating is a critical element that's a fine line btwn success and failure

WHYYYYYYY? would you mess around with anything except the industry heating probes?

Your self defined cheap heating probes have yet to fail me in 15yrs when controlled by an external controller. My Apex is my controller now.

Too hot they get powered off.

Too cold I get a text to my phone every 5mins. Phone gets blown up.

Btw Apex temp probes ARE ADJUSTABLE. I have a labgrade glass thermometer and recalibrate it 2x a year.... it only off by 1° at the most I've seen

Dont mess with what's been the industry standard for decades...
It would be like saying.... "you know. I'm going to source my own 72 elements and make my own saltmix in my basement "

 

[AllSignsPointToFish]

Regardless of how you control, I strongly recommend using 2 undersized heaters instead of one that can handle the task on its own. That way if one fails on, it hopefully will not be able to catastrophically overheat the tank, or if one fails off, there is still some heating occuring. Obviously room temperature comes into play in failure scenarios.

so say you compute you need at least 250 watts of heater, instead of one 250 watts heater, I would get 2 150 watt. I keep one in my overflow and one in the sump, with the temperature probe on my Apex in the farthest chamber of my sump. I have the on/ temps on the heaters set one degree off. so I have 3 thermostats operating - one on each heater and one on the Apex.

This.

I have employed this ideology from the very beginning for exactly the same rationale.

The Apex probe generally does not require calibration. The Apex manual quotes probe accuracy at +/- 0.5 °F.

 

[LadyTang2]

Heating is a critical element that's a fine line btwn success and failure

WHYYYYYYY? would you mess around with anything except the industry heating probes?

It would be like saying.... "you know. I'm going to source my own 72 elements and make my own saltmix in my basement "

which probes are those? Thanks!

 

[ZoWhat]

which probes are those? Thanks!

What heaters i.e. heating probes to buy?

Go to bulkreefsupply.com and read reviews

 

[LadyTang2]

Heating is a critical element that's a fine line btwn success and failure

WHYYYYYYY? would you mess around with anything except the industry heating probes?

Your self defined cheap heating probes have yet to fail me in 15yrs when controlled by an external controller. My Apex is my controller now.

Too hot they get powered off.

Too cold I get a text to my phone every 5mins. Phone gets blown up.

Btw Apex temp probes ARE ADJUSTABLE. I have a labgrade glass thermometer and recalibrate it 2x a year.... it only off by 1° at the most I've seen

Dont mess with what's been the industry standard for decades...
It would be like saying.... "you know. I'm going to source my own 72 elements and make my own saltmix in my basement "

You've been using an inkbird for 15 years!? That's a good track record! Others have reported so-so accuracy.

The apex probe is well reviewed on BRS. I'm looking for a second reliable option. Maybe to use together.

 

[Uncle99]

I use the new Fluval E-Series heater, it has some great safety technology including a display in different colours and warning.
Combined with the Inkbird, I doubt both digitalis would fail at the same time. I do not need a secondary heater as my home never fall below 74 degrees
As far as accuracy it’s far better to have consistency as to whether or not it’s 78 or 80.....so far this heater has kept temp within .5 degree year round.

 

[Quietman]

If I had to one and only one heater controller - I'd go with Ranco no question.

I didn't go with just one though - used 2 undersized Jagers (with onboard controller as backup) with an Inkbird main controller, and an AutoAqua additional backup, plus a low temp heater in case something tripped off the 2 main heaters.

I need at least 3 failures (not counting house electric) to go high on tank temp and 2 to go low.

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/quietmans-rsr-170-mixed-reef.516092/post-6543653

 

[MichaelReefer]

Heating is an area I feel the least confident about with my new build. I have a hard time believing the cheap temp probes on an inkbird are very accurate. How accurate is the apex probe and does it require any sort of calibration?

I've read about people using water heaters and heat exchangers which sounded interesting but no redundancy, what other unique heating solutions are out there and how are they redundant?

I use this finnex. Love it so far.

Finnex TH-U 800W Titanium Heating Tube and Digital Controller Kit | Premium Aquatics

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[LadyTang2]

If I had to one and only one heater controller - I'd go with Ranco no question.

I didn't go with just one though - used 2 undersized Jagers (with onboard controller as backup) with an Inkbird main controller, and an AutoAqua additional backup, plus a low temp heater in case something tripped off the 2 main heaters.

I need at least 3 failures (not counting house electric) to go high on tank temp and 2 to go low.

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/quietmans-rsr-170-mixed-reef.516092/post-6543653

So you like the ranco but are not using it? Which model ranco works with liquid, or are they all air or liquid?

 

[Quietman]

So you like the ranco but are not using it? Which model do you use?

Described in the post...went with 3 in series to function as backups for each other. I do not like the idea of a single failure causing overheating. I wanted protection against at least 2 failures and ended up with 3 on the heating side, 2 on the low temperature side.

 

[Quietman]

So you like the ranco but are not using it? Which model ranco works with liquid, or are they all air or liquid?

And I meant if I had to go with one heater controller with no backups and rely on it to protect my tank...I'd go with the Ranco (or with an aquarium controller that could email/text me on high temp). Since the Ranco's are bigger than I wanted, and I didn't want to buy a high end aquarium controller - I went with Inkbird and multiple backups.

I don't think Inkbird is necessarily better or worse than other heater controllers in the price range, it had the functionality I wanted. If it fails after a couple years, I'll replace with another Inkbird more than likely. If it doesn't last that long, I may switch.

 

[Gene Ashton]

This.

I have employed this ideology from the very beginning for exactly the same rationale.

The Apex probe generally does not require calibration. The Apex manual quotes probe accuracy at +/- 0.5 °F.

I'm about the same. I run Inkbird with one 125W and one 250W on my RSR450. Holds steady at 77.5.