Heater vs controller

[Aardvark1134]

So I keep seeing where people post heaters go bad you must have a controller on them.
I have looked up 4 different controllers people were recommending and on most of them you see lots of reviews where the controller itself failed or is hard to keep calibrated...aren't those the 2 things the controller is supposed to prevent?

So how do you protect against a heater jamming on...without putting something even more unreliable in charge of it?

 

[dbl]

One way would be to use two smaller heaters instead of one larger one. That way when (not if) one fails, it is less likely to cook your tank as they typically fail in the on position. Now this doesn't protect you in a case where they would both fail at the same time, but it certainly lessens the risk in my opinion.

The other thing I personally do is replace my heater every year. My heater is rarely on given my location, and it's ultimately controlled by an Apex, but to me it's a small investment to make for a little added protection.

My $.02 anyway.

 

[chipmunkofdoom2]

So I keep seeing where people post heaters go bad you must have a controller on them.
I have looked up 4 different controllers people were recommending and on most of them you see lots of reviews where the controller itself failed or is hard to keep calibrated...aren't those the 2 things the controller is supposed to prevent?

So how do you protect against a heater jamming on...without putting something even more unreliable in charge of it?

Which controllers are you seeing that have trouble keeping calibration? Or are particularly unreliable? Apexes and Reef Keepers definitely don't have these problems, nor do stand-alone options like Ranco controllers. Not that I am aware of.

 

[Aardvark1134]

I am not seeing any bad ratings on the apex. Might consider that one. If I do get that one does it stay calibrated or need to be recalibrated a lot? Do you think the salt and ph probe are worth having too?

The reef keeper was one of the ones with lots of 1 stars complaints on it.

 

[Breadman03]

I've been running an Apex for about 5 years and am happy with it. I've never calibrated the temp probe, but have used a calibrated thermometer to check my tank temperature and it's always matched within a degree or so.

If I was in the market for a new controller today, I would look at Apex or the GHL Profilux.

 

[OriginalUserName]

If you are considering no controller vs controller, you might want to look at the ReefKeeper light. I picked up recently for that exact purpose and then decided to add on the PH monitoring. The jury is still out on the PH, but I'm pretty happy with the Temp monitoring and control. It's a great price point that will give you 4 controllable outlets so you can ditch any of those stupid appliance timers you have or do some basic wave making. It maintains my temp very well and out of the box calibration was pretty close to where I wanted it.

I'm 90% sure I will upgrade to a full Apex next year when I buy a new tank, but I think for the very basic stuff I'd give the RKL a nod.

I decided to do PH because I've moved into SPS. Otherwise I don't see the point. IMO salinity is just a nice to have. Perhaps if you want an auto shutoff on your ATO or something but otherwise things will stay fairly stable. You will want to do manual tests anyway.

 

[Greybeard]

I had a recent bad experience with Reefkeeper. Before you consider one, I'd highly recommend you attempt to contact their customer support. When my RKL lost it's mind, I was completely unable to contact the manufacturer for support.

I'm unsure where the OP has heard about hard to keep calibrated controllers... IMHO, this is not the case.

For cheap, Inkbird is the way to go. Set your heater's temp control, if it has one, to a degree or so warmer than you want your tank, and plug it into the Inkbird, setting it at the temp you want. It's a fairly safe configuration. You have to have two devices fail for the heater to cook your tank.

With a controller, I'm using an Apex, you have more flexibility. Starting with an email alert if the temp ranges outside of your intended range. It's also fairly easy to add a 2nd temp probe to an Apex, and keep a running comparison between the two. Even possible to set up an alarm if the two probes disagree by more than X degrees. Kill your display lights if the tank temp exceeds a given temp, turn on a fan automatically, etc. Lots of options, with a full controller. I've never needed to calibrate my temp probe on my Apex, but I haven't had it very long, either.

I _love_ the pH monitoring. Aside from nifty graphs showing how much the pH bounces every day, you can set it up to turn off your ATO if you're dosing Kalk, and your pH goes above a certain level, same with a calcium reactor on the low end.

Salinity is a bit less important for me to monitor... I check it when I do my biweekly water changes, and have a well designed ATO system that I can depend on. My salinity just doesn't vary, so I don't see much of a benefit in monitoring it.

 

[OriginalUserName]

I had a recent bad experience with Reefkeeper. Before you consider one, I'd highly recommend you attempt to contact their customer support. When my RKL lost it's mind, I was completely unable to contact the manufacturer for support.

My PH probe was wonky out of the box. It did take several days and a call to the vendor to get support. Supposedly the replacement is on the way. I agree though, I wouldn't expect much support from Digital Aquatics.

 

[ca1ore]

Any mechanical device can fail which is why redundancy is so useful. Depends upon the size/complexity of the system I suppose, but on my big tank I use multiple redundant heaters and two, independent controllers (Apex and Ranco)

 

[Bayareareefer18]

Have never had an issue with an inkbird but as others have stated anything has the potential to fail. If you aren't quite ready for full automation an inkbird is a great device

 

[Aardvark1134]

Looks like I might get an apex Jr with auto top off module