Very very very inconsistent temperatures!?

[Maxx Yung]

I have a Red Sea Reefer 750XXL, (about 180 gal water volume)
2 Eheim Jager, 300W and 50W
300W set at 79° and 50W set at 78°.
Temp is always going up and down from 71°F to 78.3°.
Inconsistent temperature is bad, according to basically everywhere, how do I fix this?

 

[TheOneWhoIsThere]

Maybe a malfunction in your heater. Your house could be too cold. Other than that I don’t know.

 

[Mrx7899]

What are you using for a thermometer

 

[TheOneWhoIsThere]

What are you using for a thermometer

He already said, he is using the Eheim Jager 300W and 50W

 

[Rjukan]

Is that enough wattage for such a large tank? I only have a 60g and 300w was recommended to me when I was setting it up. That 50w isnt doing much of anything.

 

[Rjukan]

He already said, he is using the Eheim Jager 300W and 50W

Those are the heaters themselves, the thermometer shows water temp. I'm also curious what type of thermometer is being used.

 

[Mrx7899]

He already said, he is using the Eheim Jager 300W and 50W

I know what heaters he is using I ask what thermometer he is using some of the cheap one a not very accurate.

 

[Maxx Yung]

https://www.amazon.com/Digital-Aquarium-Marine-Water-Thermometer/dp/B0769DTLP3

I live in NYC, so is 65° too cold? And the 300W is barely 3 weeks old, 50W probably 2 years old. Don't think the 300W will break that soon...

 

[ScottBrew]

350 watts on a 180 gallon tank is not going to keep up if your house is getting very cold or the tank is in a drafty area. I have a 200 watt heater on a 90. It was running at 100% duty cycle last week with the house at 70* trying to keep the tank at 78*. Can you verify that the 300 watt heater is in fact heating up? And that it is staying in up until 78*?

 

[Maxx Yung]

I mean the sump temperature is 81° so..........
return pump is also pumping quite nicely. Maybe the room temperature is too cold and just cooling it faster than the pump can pump the warm water up?

 

[Maxx Yung]

In that case, would I need another 300W heater?

 

[Mrx7899]

I have a couple of those thermometer some are accurate and some are way off. I use one like this now just point it at the water. Do you have a controller controlling the heaters or just the internal thermostat of the heater

heaterEtekcity 1022 Digital Laser Infrared Thermometer Temperature Gun Non-contact -58℉~1022℉ (-50℃ ~ 550℃) with Adjustable Emissivity & Max Measure for Meat Refrigerator Pool Oven https://www.amazon.com/dp/B013X0NQT0/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_y5dcCbQD05XW6

 

[Maxx Yung]

Internally, which I know is bad. I plan on a controller soon, but the tank is only one month old and the wallet is in the emergency room right now.. worth it

 

[Maxx Yung]

Wait I also have this, reminded me about it.
https://www.amazon.com/GDEALER-DT09..._rd_t=40701&psc=1&refRID=Z72VH9VE17X0JTKEYAAR

 

[Mrx7899]

I have a jager 200w and a titanium 500w on my 225 that's in my basement and they keep it at 79 degrees with no problems. I'm in New Jersey and cold out. Maybe pick up a 200w and replace the 50w.

 

[DivingTheWorld]

A couple things I see here:

Why are you running a 50w heater? Might as well just remove that. If your 300w heater stops working the 50w isn't going to save your tank.

The fact that your sump is 81 degrees, but your tank is as cool as 71 degrees tells me you don't have enough flow through your system. Yeah, when the heaters(s) are on in the sump, it might be a degree warmer, but not several degrees.

I would recommend dual 300w heaters. It's recommended to have 1 with a tank your size, but if that fails it would be good to have a backup.

Are you using a controller? The thermometers built into heaters are notoriously bad. Personally I run an Apex, but there are lower cost options to control your heaters and prevent them from over heating (or under heating) your tank.

 

[Porpoise Hork]

https://www.amazon.com/Digital-Aquarium-Marine-Water-Thermometer/dp/B0769DTLP3

I live in NYC, so is 65° too cold? And the 300W is barely 3 weeks old, 50W probably 2 years old. Don't think the 300W will break that soon...

Those temperature probes are junk. They are wildly inaccurate and there is no way to calibrate them. I would strongly recommend running one of these or something similar to monitor and control the temps. you can calibrate it very easily and has high/low temp alarms.

https://www.amazon.com/Inkbird-Max-...id=1544044740&sr=8-4&keywords=Inkbird+Itc-308

I use this on my tanks and have it set to shut the main heater off just above the primary heater setting and then I have the emergency heater set on the cooling side to kick on if the tank temp falls below 75 and to shut off at 78. So If the main heater fails the secondary will kick on and then shuts off at the normal range for the main heater. If either of them were to get stuck on the unit will cut power to the heaters once they reach the dialed in running temp I have configured. You can set it to run within 1 degree F or .3c of a temperature range it operates in.

 

[Maxx Yung]

Might just get a 300W, the price is like 1$ off or something. Any good controllers?

 

[Maxx Yung]

Okay you guys read my mind. 50W because why not I had it in my 16 gallon.
1. I'll get another 300W
2. I'll look at them controllers.

 

[Nick C]

I agree with everyone else. I was running 2 125W heaters and ended up upgrading to a 150 and 125. The two 125's weren't enough to keep my 140 total water heated to 78. Now it bounces between 77.8 and 78.3 very consistently.