tank heater

C

crawfish aka Bill

Premium Member
any thoughts on what methods you use to control temp and a fail safe method of control. I had a heater stick and over heat tank .what do you use to prevent this
 
I use a stand alone controller plus the apex controller. Two times a year I check the heater to see if it is stuck on. Then I check the controller to see if it is stuck on and lastly I check the apex temp reading with digital thermometer after calibration with ice water and boiling water.


Sent from pay phone in the airport.
 
Ranco temperature controller would work as a backup. Depending on the size of your system, you can go with multiple smaller heaters so that failure on one won't instantly cook everything. For example, I need 900 watts so I run 3 x 300w heaters. At least if one sticks on, it can cool itself quickly enough via evaporation. You could also add a chiller, some of which have a temperature controller built-in for a heater. I've just gotten in the habit of replacing heaters every year as a precaution. Cheaper than trying to replace livestock.
 
Use an Apex, Arduino, or Raspberry Pi to monitor the temperature with redundant probes and if the tank starts to get too hot send a kill signal to the Apex to shut the power off from the heaters and send you a message by email stating you have had a heater failure....you can then figure out which unit is bad if you have multiple when you get home in person.....I set them to only come back on my physical reset of the controller....or by logging in and saying ok to the power block....just an idea.
 
True "fail safe" is generally going to be industrial type stuff costing several hundred dollars. "Reliable" is generally going to be an external, dedicated temperature controller that you can plug your heater into. There are more technical options if you like DIY. Personally, I'd avoid using an aquarium computer for the task, but it's better than relying on the heater alone. I think as far as equipment failures go, stuck heaters are probably the most common and most devastating.
 
I have three heaters for my system. None of them are strong enough by themselves to overheat 450g of water. The controller is set to turn off my lights if the tank gets too hot (82F) to stop any more heat from being added, and a cooling fan is enabled (79.5). Heaters are set to come on if the tank dips below 78F.

I have the heaters' internal thermostat set slightly higher than the Apex setpoint. By that I mean that the heaters will come on when the Apex turns them on, but if the water reaches 80-81 (in theory), the heater will shut itself off. If I had the heater set lower, it wouldn't come on when the Apex tries to turn it on because the internal thermostat would be set too low. Hope that makes sense.
 
@crawfish aka Bill wrote:
Any more. Thanks ekolancer. I'm trying to get out of apex business now. said:
Well as many have said....The best way to keep that from happing is to have some type of computer or aquarium monitor, AKA (Apex) or whatever you want to use to monitor your aquarium. I have two heaters on my aquarium, and neither one can cook my aquarium, but the two together can get the job done. This is your first defense. I let the temperature controls on the heater's control the water temp, and I set my Apex just .5 degrees outside the threshold of the heater to turn on/off in case it malfunctions. So this provides dual redundancy and the setup will not allow what happened to you.

I have purchased one of the so called industrial $$$$$$$ heaters and the dang thing burned up. Do not buy one heater that is rated over your aquarium volume that can cook all your inhabitants, because any product can fail. Use the setup that everyone has presented here and you will be happy and feel safe.

Good Luck.
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