How do you protect your tank from temperature probe failure?

[COreef8]

I

What I was thinking with this it would plug directly to my heater and then this to the controller.
This way it does not take out the whole controller

I was just reading more about this and it seems like it would make a good absolute last resort backup but it won’t do anything until the temp is above 84 or below 72.

 

[shred5]

I

I was just reading more about this and it seems like it would make a good absolute last resort backup but it won’t do anything until the temp is above 84 or below 72.

Yea it is not a controller... It is to shut off the heater or chiller if the controller or what ever thermostat you use fails.

Its a safety device if all else fails.

 

[shred5]

https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/vide...732935761394953771705011135930596228350728806

Think this came out yesterday but I have not watched it yet.

 

[COreef8]

https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/vide...732935761394953771705011135930596228350728806

Think this came out yesterday but I have not watched it yet.

What perfect timing! I watched this and while it does not specifically address failure of the actual controller's temp probe, it did have some helpful advice.

My takeaway for my exact situation is that the controller still did what it was supposed to. It shut the heater off, but it did kick the fans on. The temp dropped down to about 76 degrees but as they put it, this would not be detrimental for even several days.

For my quarantine tank, since my cooling fans are so effective, it may be a good idea to only use 1 fan so if there is a malfunction it doesn't overcool the tank. The heater's internal thermostat acting as a backup to the apex should protect the tank from a catastrophic overheat.

I will still look into some other options mentioned before in this thread.

 

[vhuang168]

If you know for sure the probe is faulty and your heater has its own control, turn the heater outlet to ON. This bypasses the programming.

I have 3 temp probes in my system. 1 in the tank, 1 in the sump and 1 ambient.

If intank and insump do not track, something is probably going on with the return flow or with the probe. I can then make an educated guess and intervene with manual control if it is the probe. Or switch the controlling probe to the other one (chances of BOTH probes failing are slim to none).

 

[COreef8]

If you know for sure the probe is faulty and your heater has its own control, turn the heater outlet to ON. This bypasses the programming.

I have 3 temp probes in my system. 1 in the tank, 1 in the sump and 1 ambient.

If intank and insump do not track, something is probably going on with the return flow or with the probe. I can then make an educated guess and intervene with manual control if it is the probe. Or switch the controlling probe to the other one (chances of BOTH probes failing are slim to none).

Unfortunately, I've tested the heater in my quarantine tank before and the temperature swing is quite dramatic but you're right, it is still much better than no heater. I was trying to slowly step up my temperature swing in my tank so everything would acclimate to the swing, but when the corals started looking bad from other causes, I decreased the temp swing.

I love the idea of multiple temperature probes for each tank, just a bummer that you have to buy multiple modules to accomplish that. It would be awesome if Neptune Systems would develop an advanced temperature module that had 2 or 3 temperature probes. It could have it's own algorithms to throw out the data from one if it failed, or you could just use it to display the temperatures independently. Right now, the only solution that I'm aware of for a 3 probe configuration is buying 2 PM1 modules at $85 each. Still might be a good option to consider.

 

[jda]

Apex is not a controller, is is a monitor and timer. I know that they call it a controller, but it does not have enough redundancies or ability to "fail off" and cannot be relied upon alone. About all that it should be used for is monitoring while leaving the controlling to other devices (or nothing).

I use Ranco and then Ehiem heaters with thermostats in them. Ehiem will quit every now and then, but they just stop working, they don't stick on and kill anything. Ranco has been going for decade+.

 

[Rich Klein]

I have 2 temp probes on my Apex - one in the sump and one in the tank. And alarms set to warn me if either one varies from desired parameters. Having one in my tank will also indicate if my return pump fails since the temperature will drop in my DT.

 

[Tastee]

Someone else mentioned something like this and I thought a bit about leaving a heater uncontrolled by the apex. Do you have any protection then if that heater gets stuck in the on position? I guess having the chiller helps a lot. If the heater gets stuck on then the chiller can help combat the temperature rise but I don’t use a chiller.

If my controller shuts the heater off, the tank would get cold but I’d much rather have that than the heater getting stuck on and cooking my tank.

If my backup heater was stuck on then as you said my chiller would kick in. If the chiller couldn’t chill fast enough I would get an Apex alarm about high temperature.

I would however have to manually check the tank or my Apex dashboard to realise that the backup heater and chiller were fighting each other. If I was checking my dashboard I would realise there must be something wrong to have temperature rise if the ambient temperature was < 25.