heaters

tom reilly · Jun 14, 2016

Im going to end up with about 150 gallons of sump and tank total.
I was using two 300 watt heaters in my 125 fresh tank.
Is it ok to go the same in new tank.
I would like to use a controller to run the heaters. Get conflicting answers as to using two heaters on one controller.
Any opinions?

ngvu1 · Jun 14, 2016

I would have a heater, with its own temp control, behind a controller. I hate the idea of cooking the fish or wasting energy. And it is like $20-$30 for a temperature controller..

sbash · Jun 14, 2016

ngvu1 said:
I would have a heater, with its own temp control, behind a controller. I hate the idea of cooking the fish or wasting energy. And it is like $20-$30 for a temperature controller..

I second that... All but one of my 300 watt heaters seem to have stuck in the ON position. Frankly I am glad it did not happen while I was on vacation because my water temperature (almost 300 gallons of water) had climbed over 84 degrees.

To further that (aside from the controller only costing $50), with the 78-82controller, my temperature is rock solid stable. With the simplistic controller built into the heater, the calibration varied wildly and I would see fluctuations from 78-82 degrees.

I am running an Inkbird controller, supports up to 1000w of heaters and costs $54 CAD. So if you are in the US, you can probably get it for under $20, lol...

jsker · Jun 14, 2016

I have the Fennix 300w in my 80 gallon volume system. I had one of the dial on top heater and started to experience issue with that heater. I have the Apex controller and have my Fennix set to turn on at 78.3 and off at 78.5 works like a charm. The nice thing about running the heater of my controller is that I will get an alarm if it we higher then my preset and also my controller will shout down the power and 78.5. That is my story

cmcoker · Jun 14, 2016

I use a finnex controller on my display and just built a inkbird controller for my quarantine, it will controller a heater and a fan..
I have had multiple brands of heater go out of whack and luckily nothing was ever cooked but i firmly believe a controller is a must have piece of equipment
I think inkbird may have one that has two outlets on it for heaters..