Temperature issues

[RobB'z Reef]

Previously I had two 300w titanium heaters maintaining my 180 + sump (total 200+gallons) but it just did it only barely with ambient temps in the 65 range. I'd just upgrade to two 300w heaters, get a temp controller and call it a day.

 

[RobB'z Reef]

Meanwhile OP is like

 

[CanuckReefer]

I'm running (2) Aqueon Pro 200w heaters in my new Reefer 350. I have them set at 78 degrees and I'm only able to reach a max temp of 75.6. The heater lights are on 24/7. Temp in the room is 65 degrees. I've tried putting them both in the display tank and the sump with no change. I have 2 digital thermometers one running in the tank the other in the sump both giving the same reading. I also threw in a floating one with the same results.

Do I need to get a third heater or up the wattage in the two? Thanks!

I'm just marveling at the temp in room of 65??? I'm Canadian and thought I knew cold lol.....

 

[ParrotHead310]

I turned up both heaters to 82 and the tank is staying steady at 77.5. I just turned them up to 84 to see if the tank goes up anymore. It seems that 1 heater pretty much runs 24/7 at full wattage. When I check the 2nd heater it's been running at 50-100w at times other times full 200.

As for my room temp; I left one of the probes out of the water and it was giving me that temp. Honestly it feels warmer than 65 in the room but I don't have a thermostat in there. Tank is in my workshop off of our finished basement. The basement is heated but not that room so the only way to get it warmer is running a space heater, which I'm not crazy about due to a fire hazard.

My LFS said I should throw in a 3rd heater. I'm thinking of getting a 300w for the 3rd and see what that does. Is it expected that heaters should be running hot 24/7? If I have 600-700w running 24/7 doesn't seem too energy efficient. I'll definitely plan on getting a temp controller, maybe in Inkbird?

 

[Jekyl]

I turned up both heaters to 82 and the tank is staying steady at 77.5. I just turned them up to 84 to see if the tank goes up anymore. It seems that 1 heater pretty much runs 24/7 at full wattage. When I check the 2nd heater it's been running at 50-100w at times other times full 200.

As for my room temp; I left one of the probes out of the water and it was giving me that temp. Honestly it feels warmer than 65 in the room but I don't have a thermostat in there. Tank is in my workshop off of our finished basement. The basement is heated but not that room so the only way to get it warmer is running a space heater, which I'm not crazy about due to a fire hazard.

My LFS said I should throw in a 3rd heater. I'm thinking of getting a 300w for the 3rd and see what that does. Is it expected that heaters should be running hot 24/7? If I have 600-700w running 24/7 doesn't seem too energy efficient. I'll definitely plan on getting a temp controller, maybe in Inkbird?

I have 2 heaters in my tank but only one is ever on. Both are hooked up to an inkbird. One heater does the heavy lifting. Second heater is there incase the first one fails.

 

[ParrotHead310]

I have 2 heaters in my tank but only one is ever on. Both are hooked up to an inkbird. One heater does the heavy lifting. Second heater is there incase the first one fails.

Do you have them set at different temps? Have the second only kick on as a backup is something you program via the inkbird?

 

[Jekyl]

Do you have them set at different temps? Have the second only kick on as a backup is something you program via the inkbird?

I have my primary heater running 77 to 78 and the back up for 76 to 77

 

[ParrotHead310]

I have my primary heater running 77 to 78 and the back up for 76 to 77

Gotcha

 

[Reef.]

Yo

I turned up both heaters to 82 and the tank is staying steady at 77.5. I just turned them up to 84 to see if the tank goes up anymore. It seems that 1 heater pretty much runs 24/7 at full wattage. When I check the 2nd heater it's been running at 50-100w at times other times full 200.

As for my room temp; I left one of the probes out of the water and it was giving me that temp. Honestly it feels warmer than 65 in the room but I don't have a thermostat in there. Tank is in my workshop off of our finished basement. The basement is heated but not that room so the only way to get it warmer is running a space heater, which I'm not crazy about due to a fire hazard.

My LFS said I should throw in a 3rd heater. I'm thinking of getting a 300w for the 3rd and see what that does. Is it expected that heaters should be running hot 24/7? If I have 600-700w running 24/7 doesn't seem too energy efficient. I'll definitely plan on getting a temp controller, maybe in Inkbird?

You could put a 1000w heater in the tank, the tank would still only use what it needed, be that 500w or 600w it wouldn’t cost any more to run the tank with an over powered heater than using a heater correctly sized for your tank.

You said the heaters were on 24/7 so turning them up would have had no affect, as the heaters are either on or off, they don’t get hotter the higher temp you set.

I think you need to work out where you are at, too many guesses atm, buy a $5 room temp display, see what the room is at, buy a temp controller too as the thermostats on the heaters themselves are not great.

You could turn the heaters up fully just to check if they are in fact staying on 24/7 but you would have to keep an eye on the tank that it doesn’t overheat.

If the temp is still not reached you need to either heat the room, or buy larger heaters.

 

[Reefer Reboot]

Something that caught my attention here.
In post #24, you stated "When I check the 2nd heater it's been running at 50-100w at times other times full 200." From what I've read, these heaters are on/off type. It would have to have a PID controller to do what you were saying. So if this is happening as stated, it sounds like you have a faulty heater. (Possibly worn contacts) Just FYI

 

[ParrotHead310]

Yes, thought the same thing. I’m getting that data off of a Kasa surge protector so not sure if the read out is 100% accurate. Never used one before.

 

[ParrotHead310]

Ended up getting a 600w titanium with an InkBird controller and it’s working great. I’m keeping 1 of the 200w as a backup and hook it up to the controller.

Now my issue is that I can’t get the InkBird app synced cause I can’t get my phone off of my 5ghz wifi band to set it up. I ended crashing my whole wifi network trying to disable the 5ghz band for quite some time. My wife and I both work from home so you can imagine how that went over.

 

[Reef.]

Ended up getting a 600w titanium with an InkBird controller and it’s working great. I’m keeping 1 of the 200w as a backup and hook it up to the controller.

Now my issue is that I can’t get the InkBird app synced cause I can’t get my phone off of my 5ghz wifi band to set it up. I ended crashing my whole wifi network trying to disable the 5ghz band for quite some time. My wife and I both work from home so you can imagine how that went over.

Just log into your Wi-fi route and turn the 5ghz off for a couple of seconds whilst you set up the inkbird then turn the 5ghz back on.

 

[ParrotHead310]

Just log into your Wi-fi route and turn the 5ghz off for a couple of seconds whilst you set up the inkbird then turn the 5ghz back on.

Well I tried that and it ended up messing up my wifi took 2 days to fix so I’m a little hesitant to try again. I’m running an Orbi 6 mesh wifi system.