Heater Setup With Apex Controller

[gcrawford]

Wondering what others' school of thought is about heater setup? I currently have one titanium heater (no tstat) plugged into my apex which works fine. Is it recommended to have a second one plugged into a second apex outlet in case of failure of the first?

 

[feh]

I have 2 heaters with one configured as a stand-by sort of. My program mainly uses the one heater but if the temp drops the other heater will kick in. I can show you the code later if you like.

 

[SaltwaterAq Verified Sponsor]

You should only used thermostat controlled heaters with your apex. The secondary temp control is a nice fail over in cases some readings/settings get messed up.

 

[feh]

Apex Code:

Heater1
Fallback OFF
If Temp < 77.1 Then ON
If Temp > 77.6 Then OFF
If Temp < 72.0 Then OFF
If Outlet ReturnPump = OFF Then OFF
Defer 001:00 Then ON

Heater2
Fallback OFF
If Temp < 77.0 Then ON
If Temp > 77.5 Then OFF
If Outlet ReturnPump = OFF Then OFF
Defer 001:00 Then ON

 

[gcrawford]

Thanks!

 

[jt17]

If your temp prob on the apex fails it will give extreme readings either hot or cold which will trigger heaters or chillers to do extreme things if a thermostat doesn't shut them off. You always want redundancy even with the apex. Apex gave a half day seminar at this years MACNA and one thing they emphasized is to always run a heater through a thermostat just in case your apex receives false temp readings the thermostat will shut the heater off. And yes it's always a good idea to have a second heater in case the first fails.

 

[Velodog2]

Apex also recommends that you anticipate the probe failure behavior by writing code to notice the aberrant readings. I think if it fails you get a reading of 40 degrees so if you include a line of code to turn the heater OFF if the temp reads less than say 50 degrees then you are covered against that mode of meltdown.

the tstat on the heater itself is still a good idea tho and I use one with it. IME the eheim-jagers are more reliable than the typical titanium heater anyway and include the tstat. And with that said you should also use two heaters (maybe of somewhat reduced wattage) simultaneously (can be connected to the same outlet on the Apex) for redundancy in case one of them just stops working.

 

[Diesel]

Apex also recommends that you anticipate the probe failure behavior by writing code to notice the aberrant readings. I think if it fails you get a reading of 40 degrees so if you include a line of code to turn the heater OFF if the temp reads less than say 50 degrees then you are covered against that mode of meltdown.

the tstat on the heater itself is still a good idea tho and I use one with it. IME the eheim-jagers are more reliable than the typical titanium heater anyway and include the tstat. And with that said you should also use two heaters (maybe of somewhat reduced wattage) simultaneously (can be connected to the same outlet on the Apex) for redundancy in case one of them just stops working.

If your temp prob on the apex fails it will give extreme readings either hot or cold which will trigger heaters or chillers to do extreme things if a thermostat doesn't shut them off. You always want redundancy even with the apex. Apex gave a half day seminar at this years MACNA and one thing they emphasized is to always run a heater through a thermostat just in case your apex receives false temp readings the thermostat will shut the heater off. And yes it's always a good idea to have a second heater in case the first fails.

Book marking this, thanks.

 

[racin2438]

Great ideas, and great info.......

Now going to order a 2nd titanium heater.....

Thanks for the info guys.....

 

[Trex]

If your temp prob on the apex fails it will give extreme readings either hot or cold which will trigger heaters or chillers to do extreme things if a thermostat doesn't shut them off. You always want redundancy even with the apex. Apex gave a half day seminar at this years MACNA and one thing they emphasized is to always run a heater through a thermostat just in case your apex receives false temp readings the thermostat will shut the heater off. And yes it's always a good idea to have a second heater in case the first fails.

Or you are doing work on your sump, and end up with the temp probe out of the water on a cool fall evening with the windows open. Happened to me about 7 years ago with an Reef Keeper 1, and I stupidly had the thermostat on the heater all the way up. Tank got to about 90* before I noticed -- luckily didn't lose a thing.