Large Tank : 2 Heaters : Heater Controller

[Woodneers]

i run a 600 watt on an inkbird in a 300 gallon tank and I still see a 1* swing all throughout the day

I also have the inkbird set to celsius and that helps but not a ton. I will say my cobalt neotherms in my 75 stayed between 77.9 - 78.1 and nothing else! might wnd up going with 2 300 watt neotherms.

 

[Saltyreef]

Ambient conditions have everything to do with if a certain heater wattage will work accordingly for a given tank.

I have 400watts on my 50g system and it struggles in the winter or if i leave the window open.

 

[bdare]

Ambient conditions have everything to do with if a certain heater wattage will work accordingly for a given tank.

I have 400watts on my 50g system and it struggles in the winter or if i leave the window open.

Yeah... another good point. I do turn the thermostat in my house down to 65 at night.

 

[ca1ore]

How much heat you need is not just based on gallons. I upgraded from a 12 mm glass 265 to a 1" acrylic 450 and I need slightly less wattage now. In the Summer I ran a chiller that ended up swinging by about 1.5 degrees F. SPS didn't seem to care. Replaced the controller with a Ranco, now the swing is about 0.8 degrees. SPS still don't care. If you've got sizable $$ in corals, get a better controller. For heat I use Apex - cycles be danged.

 

[bdare]

How much heat you need is not just based on gallons. I upgraded from a 12 mm glass 265 to a 1" acrylic 450 and I need slightly less wattage now. In the Summer I ran a chiller that ended up swinging by about 1.5 degrees F. SPS didn't seem to care. Replaced the controller with a Ranco, now the swing is about 0.8 degrees. SPS still don't care. If you've got sizable $$ in corals, get a better controller. For heat I use Apex - cycles be danged.

Great info. Thanks.

Which Ranco model are you running?

 

[ca1ore]

Great info. Thanks.

Which Ranco model are you running?

I have a couple, actually. The ETC-111000 for heater backup and then another on my tradewinds chiller. Cannot recall which model I used for the chiller. Might have been the same one. Would have to check.

 

[RobB'z Reef]

I just ordered some 600w units. We'll see how that goes. Won't change anything but that and see if get get different results. Interesting observations across the board here. We are always up against observations imply causality here.

 

[zudo]

I have a 180 gallon tank with a 100 gallon pond container as the sump that is about 45% full. We keep the house 72 degrees 24/7. I used to run Power Compacts and coupled with my recirculating pumps I never needed a heater. Now that I upgraded the lights to 3 Nicrew 150W LED's I think they are putting out a lot less heat so I am wanting to add a heater or two to ensure the tank is stable and people have told me that for some corals I should keep it 78-79 degrees.

I read all of the posts here and have done numerous Google searches and then every time I go to Amazon to buy one of the top rated heaters I see so many horror stories of each brand failing and killing coral? Maybe that is due to people having their homes unheated or they are in cold climates and the heater failing? or are the failures over heating their corals? That is not clear, what is clear is that I cannot find any brand that does not have numerous negative reviews on the first page... wow I guess heaters are just not built that well?

What is your advice for me to buy, what specific brand and model?

 

[bdare]

I have a 180 gallon tank with a 100 gallon pond container as the sump that is about 45% full. We keep the house 72 degrees 24/7. I used to run Power Compacts and coupled with my recirculating pumps I never needed a heater. Now that I upgraded the lights to 3 Nicrew 150W LED's I think they are putting out a lot less heat so I am wanting to add a heater or two to ensure the tank is stable and people have told me that for some corals I should keep it 78-79 degrees.

I read all of the posts here and have done numerous Google searches and then every time I go to Amazon to buy one of the top rated heaters I see so many horror stories of each brand failing and killing coral? Maybe that is due to people having their homes unheated or they are in cold climates and the heater failing? or are the failures over heating their corals? That is not clear, what is clear is that I cannot find any brand that does not have numerous negative reviews on the first page... wow I guess heaters are just not built that well?

What is your advice for me to buy, what specific brand and model?

All heaters fail eventually. I believe best practice would dictate you replace your heaters once per year. I stick with Finnex titanium and Ebo Jaeger. Period.

 

[ca1ore]

I read all of the posts here and have done numerous Google searches and then every time I go to Amazon to buy one of the top rated heaters I see so many horror stories of each brand failing and killing coral? Maybe that is due to people having their homes unheated or they are in cold climates and the heater failing? or are the failures over heating their corals? That is not clear, what is clear is that I cannot find any brand that does not have numerous negative reviews on the first page... wow I guess heaters are just not built that well?

Failed/malfunctioning heater is certainly high on the causes-of-tank-crashes list, along with runway ATO and dosing mishaps. Redundancy and buying good quality are your friends here. It's easy enough to almost completely mitigate against heater problems with a little forethought. Expect that aquarium heaters WILL fail and design accordingly. My approach is to use multiple, lower powered heaters and redundant controllers.

 

[bdare]

Well... Since adding the 800W heater it hasn't stopped the degree of the swings in my tank. It's really only helped the tank get warmer faster.

Looking for make a model of better heater controllers.

 

[PedroYoung]

here is a write up i did a couple days ago on my setup using 2 heater controllers on a 200G tank (with 75G sump)

My experience using 2 Ranco Heater controller through APEX

I'd like to start by saying thanks to @Water Dog for answering several questions in another thread on using and installing the Ranco Heater Controller. I've been using my 2016 Apex for heater control on my 200G tank for about 4 months. I have 2 500W Finex heaters. In my Apex control scheme I...

www.reef2reef.com

Here is the temp trend from yesterday

 

[mdb_talon]

Failed/malfunctioning heater is certainly high on the causes-of-tank-crashes list, along with runway ATO and dosing mishaps. Redundancy and buying good quality are your friends here. It's easy enough to almost completely mitigate against heater problems with a little forethought. Expect that aquarium heaters WILL fail and design accordingly. My approach is to use multiple, lower powered heaters and redundant controllers.

That is the same approach i use. Multiple times over the years I have had heaters malfunction staying in the "on" position. First time it cooked my tank, but now have it setup that I would really need multiple concurrent failures to have a big issue. Even if one of the controllers failed and the heater failed at same time in the "on" condition it wont be enough to cook my tank.

If one fails in the off position i will see a very slow decline in temp and should be able to spot it before damage done

 

[Rubberfrog]

Well... Since adding the 800W heater it hasn't stopped the degree of the swings in my tank. It's really only helped the tank get warmer faster.

Looking for make a model of better heater controllers.

Where is your heater located, and where is the temp probe located?

 

[bdare]

Where is your heater located, and where is the temp probe located?

Probe is near the drain section of the sump. It's in the skimmer section right past my filter socks. The heaters are near the return pump on the opposite side of the sump. This means warmed water will have to circulate through the tank and hit the drain before it's actually measured again.

 

[Rubberfrog]

Probe is near the drain section of the sump. It's in the skimmer section right past my filter socks. The heaters are near the return pump on the opposite side of the sump. This means warmed water will have to circulate through the tank and hit the drain before it's actually measured again.

I keep my heater in the skimmer section, before the return pump. There is more water in there and I feel like it gets more contact time to give off heat. I keep the temp probes in the back of my display by the overflow. I am only concerned about the temp in my tank a d this gives me a good read of the tank after the heated water has had time to mix into the display water.

 

[laverda]

SPS don't like that big of a swing.

I disagree. In nature on the reefs the temp swings more and quickly, depending on many variables. While I have not measured these swings, however they are obvious while swimming.
The best way to set up heaters is to have at least 2 on separate high quality controllers like Rancho. Set one 1/2-1 degree below the other. This will keep them all from cycling excessively prolonging their life. If you need more heat I would add more heaters, not bigger ones. No reason not to have two heaters on one controller and one on another if you have 2 controllers. This will give you good efficient redundancy and not risk a 600 or 800 watt heater sticking on baking you tank.