Ink bird failure?

xiholdtruex · Jul 30, 2019

Had my heater fail off two weeks ago. Started doing research into heaters and redundancies. Most info seem to point to ink bird temperature controler as a low tech security for thier heaters.

How many of you have had bad expirence or failures of inkbirds? Do you have any other recommendations that wont break the bank. This is for my 12g jbj nano cube

camostore · Jul 30, 2019

xiholdtruex said:
Had my heater fail off two weeks ago. Started doing research into heaters and redundancies. Most info seem to point to ink bird temperature controler as a low tech security for thier heaters.

How many of you have had bad expirence or failures of inkbirds? Do you have any other recommendations that wont break the bank. This is for my 12g jbj nano cube

I have 1 now that the thermocouple is bad was 1 yr old in june

Saintnovakai · Jul 30, 2019

Had one behave wonky. Turns out I had a little stray voltage and it acted like some type of grounding probe. Still worked but couldn't change any settings. Also made this tiny whistle sound. Fixed the prob. Got a new one. All is well a year in.

ca1ore · Jul 30, 2019

I had a bad experience with both of the inkbirds I purchased. One failed completely, the other had major temp drift problems. I think not sealing the probe probably was the issue in the latter case. I much prefer the ranco controller. You still need to seal the probe, and it is a little more expensive, but it's a decades established, industrial quality controller.

BeejReef · Jul 30, 2019

@Hemmdog swears by the Ranco as well. I don't think it's terribly more expensive than the inkbird.

I run an inkbird myself, but only been up for a few months. Works well, but I can't attest to durability.

shred5 · Jul 30, 2019

William DeCoursey said:
@Hemmdog swears by the Ranco as well. I don't think it's terribly more expensive than the inkbird.

I run an inkbird myself, but only been up for a few months. Works well, but I can't attest to durability.

Ranco is the best heater controller. Not cheap though..

rock_lobster · Jul 30, 2019

Starting to wonder if we even need heaters. My tank goes down to 74 every day and up to 79. Been heater less for 5 years now. Best results ever.

jschultzbass · Jul 30, 2019

As everyone has said, Ranco is where it's at but cost is close to or slightly over $100 new. I have 3 ink birds that I use on my QT tanks (I do TTM so having a couple is necessary) and haven't had any problems yet but they are only 6 months old or so. My frag tank has a Ranco and honestly I wouldn't put all my trust into the ink bird for the $1000s of dollars of corals I have in it.

shred5 · Jul 30, 2019

rock_lobster said:
Starting to wonder if we even need heaters. My tank goes down to 74 every day and up to 79. Been heater less for 5 years now. Best results ever.

Depends on where you live and what you keep your house at.
I keep my house at 68 in the winter and that would not be good, My tanks in the basement would get into he low 60's.

Even northern Florida you could loose it all.. I know some of people there do not have a furnace and even though occasionally it can get cold. One day could wipe your tank.

Also depends on temp swings to and what you keep.

rock_lobster · Jul 30, 2019

shred5 said:
Depends on where you live and what you keep your house at.
I keep my house at 68 in the winter and that would not be good, My tanks in the basement would get into he low 60's.

Even northern Florida you could loose it all.. I know some of people there do not have a furnace and even though occasionally it can get cold. One day could wipe your tank.

Also depends on temp swings to and what you keep.

Ya it only works if you keep your house over 70 or else you have a heater that is set at 70. Mine would get down to 70 in the winter and no problems at all from 70-77 or 78 every day. I didnt let it go lower so I couldnt confirm that 70 is the lower limit however.

xiholdtruex · Jul 30, 2019

To seal the probe you just use silicon im guessing?

Potatohead · Jul 30, 2019

I've had two of them running about six years total and another one for a few months. I replaced the stainless probe on one of the older ones and that's really it, I haven't touched them in years, IMO they work well. I have never sealed the probe it stands up pretty well, mine had one very tiny rust spot after about two years so I replaced it.

muzikalmatt · Jul 30, 2019

Inkbird has a newer version that has a rubber-coated temperature probe meant for aquariums. I installed mine a little over two weeks ago and it's been working great so far.

Potatohead · Jul 30, 2019

muzikalmatt said:
Inkbird has a newer version that has a rubber-coated temperature probe meant for aquariums. I installed mine a little over two weeks ago and it's been working great so far.

This is the newest one I bought. What I don't like about it is it doesn't have an alarm if the temp goes out of your specified range, like the green one does.

muzikalmatt · Jul 30, 2019

Potatohead said:
This is the newest one I bought. What I don't like about it is it doesn't have an alarm if the temp goes out of your specified range, like the green one does.

The one I have is the green one (ITC-308S) that has heating and cooling control, temp alarm and the aquarium probe. You can buy it on amazon here. I think they also offer the option to just purchase the aquarium probe if you already have the unit but with the stainless steel probe.

Markxc · Jul 30, 2019

agree with the above - make sure you get the one that specifically says submersible probe. i originally got the one with the metal probe and put it in the water and after 8-9 months it started reading the temp 3-4 degrees higher than it really was. i have no idea why they would call it an aquarium thermostat but not make the sensor submersible.

Potatohead · Jul 30, 2019

muzikalmatt said:
The one I have is the green one (ITC-308S) that has heating and cooling control, temp alarm and the aquarium probe. You can buy it on amazon here. I think they also offer the option to just purchase the aquarium probe if you already have the unit but with the stainless steel probe.

Ok I didn't realize you could get the green one with the aquarium probe, that's good. I will likely replace my steel probes with them in time but they have been working fine for me for now.

MTBake · Jul 30, 2019

I had an Inkbird drift terribly on me. To the point it couldn't be used for the tank.

Replaced it with a Ranco. Been running great for 14 months now. If you order from Ranco, they will seal the probe for aquarium use.

ca1ore · Jul 30, 2019

xiholdtruex said:
To seal the probe you just use silicon im guessing?

I suppose silicone would work in a pinch, though usually its a vinyl shrink tube that goes over the metal probe.

Waters · Jul 30, 2019

I don't use them for my tank but I have used them for years on my reptile enclosures with no issues. I recently started using the newer WIFI controller which has been great.