Inkbird Temperature Controller

[Instigate]

I have a 10gallon qt going, has been going for 3 weeks or so. I'm using an inkbird temperature controller with a 250w heater and a clip on fan. The temperature has been very stable with only +/- 1°. Tank has one tailspot blenny that is doing well, being treated for internal parasites. When I was feeding this morning I noticed the heater kicked on and I didn't think anything of it but when I went back later the cooling fan was on and the temp was reading 81.8°F. It brought it back down to 79°F and stopped. The only thing I can think of is the inkbird let the heater run too long but the heater should be set to 80. Or maybe the inkbird misread the temperature momentarily? The other issue I have is the heater I have in there is way out of calibration. Before I got the inkbird I had to set to like 72°F to keep the tank at 79°F. I used 4 differentthermometers and averaged to calibrate the inkbird. I'm not sure what caused the temperature to get so high. I have an extra probe to test but I had to leave and now I'm wondering what happened. Has anyone had a similar experience?

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Haven't had it happen but I do have several of them.
Set the thermostat in the heater lower to start and get that as close as you can.

Then you have to fiddle with the temp range on the inkbird. Or it will as your seeing , fight itself.
I set my cooling temp at 82. And heat at 77.

 

[Instigate]

My controller doesn't have separate cooling and heating targets. Just a target temperature and an allowable differential. I have target temperature at 79°F with +/- differential set at 1°. If it was fighting itself wouldn't it just always be heating or cooling? Rather than ending up out of range.

 

[Instigate]

I've been monitoring it and it's functioning normal now. No idea why it was so out of range.

 

[Instigate]

I figured out what happened, I think. I turn off the filter when I feed and if the inkbird is heating when I turn off the filter the circulation stops and the probe is too far from the heater. And the heater keeps heating because the probe is not getting an accurate reading from circulating water. The water is stagnant. So when the filter is turned back on it starts circulating the hot water around the tank and then the probe sees its too hot and starts cooling.

I just need to turn off the temperature controller when I feed!

 

[Kactai]

Your heater is quite large for that small of a tank. With a better sized heater, it would not heat the stagnant water as fast and maybe would stay more stable? I believe the recommended heater size is about 5w/gallon. So a 50w would take care of a 10g tank.

I mean realistically it’s not big deal if you feed fairly quickly but some fish and coral are really sensitive to temp increases especially if it’s going up 1-2 degrees in a few minutes. You could also just put your probe closer to the heater.

How has it been working out for you so far since your last post? I have the same controller and haven’t set it up yet.