Heater Concern

[MadReefer]

I used a glass a Eheim heater for my upgrade and it would not keep up. I slowly adjusted the temp and went to its max but the DT was only 72.4 during the day and hit 61 the other night. I am using a digital thermostat and old style mercury one. So I broke out the titanium heater with a digital controller and placed it in the sump. I adjusted the temp over the weekend and the DT tank is 78 / 79 now looking at the mercury / digital thermostat. I have the heater set at 74; so there is huge gap in temp in my opinion. Luckily I am home most of the time and can monitor just concerned with this.
I saw the heater thread and will get a controller but do I need a new heater? If yes, what is accurate and reliable?

 

[amado]

I would 100% tell you get a heater controller. The inkbird are cheap and they work well. Get the Wi-Fi one so you can get a alert if the temp is out of range.

I would also always use two heaters to heat the tank. It doesn’t matter what you use. If you have a controller that will do all the work. I like the eheim jager


This is the correct one for aquariums.
Don’t buy the one for brewing beer that won’t work.

Inkbird 1200 Watts Digital Temperature Controller Aquarium Thermostat for Aquarium Heater, with Waterproof Sensor Amazon.com

 

[myrjon]

get a heater controller. this is what I use no problems w / titanium heater .I have also a ranco controller.Works great

 

[Paulie 069]

get a heater controller. this is what I use no problems w / titanium heater .I have also a ranco controller.Works great

View attachment 32102

88 omg are you making fish soup lol

 

[myrjon]

Just a pic... no power on this pic..display is red led

 

[nano1908]

Just as the rest of the gang said, get a controller.

I also use Eheim Jager, never let me down. They say replace them annually. I then use the old heater to bring up the temp when making new water for water changes.

Compare the cost,
Replacing heater/heaters or crashing your tank & starting from scratch.
The decision is easy for me.

GET A NEW HEATER & CONTROLLER
& LET'S SEE MORE TANK SHOTS BUDDY!!

 

[Mark_C]

Agree with controller and multiple heaters. I need about 100-120w to get my tank to temp.
I use 2x 75w with each set to 80 then set them in the temp controller and set that at 79.
If one malfunctions ‘on’ the controller will shut down, if the controller fails, the second heater’s dial prevents it from contributing to heat, and the stuck on 75w wont boil the tank.
If one fails off, theres a backup heater to hold the load for a while.

 

[brokereefer]

I have both Inkbirds (which I get cheap on Amazon) and Finnex. Both have been great for me. I prefer the titanium heaters to plug into them though. I don't want to worry about breaking a heater or something cracking. I feel safer with the titanium though I've had Eheims in the past.

 

[MadReefer]

Thanks, for the input. I was just worried of the temp swing from sump to DT. However, the DT is steady at 77.5 and will be looking at a controllers.

 

[radiata]

This week I had an Ebo-Jager heater flame-out on me in a 90G. (Sad indeed, because I consider them to be so faithful.) The water felt a little too warm (hot?), so I checked it with my NIST thermometer, and found it to be 93 degrees... Yikes! (Like why is NikkiT's Yellow Tang still alive?) I added an Apex Temperature Probe to the mix, plugged the Ebo-Jager into an Apex outlet, and managed to drop the temperature 8 degrees in just one day.

Moral? ~~~ Ebo-Jagers frozen in the "ON" position can still be useful...

 

[amado]

This week I had an Ebo-Jager heater flame-out on me in a 90G. (Sad indeed, because I consider them to be so faithful.) The water felt a little too warm (hot?), so I checked it with my NIST thermometer, and found it to be 93 degrees... Yikes! (Like why is NikkiT's Yellow Tang still alive?) I added an Apex Temperature Probe to the mix, plugged the Ebo-Jager into an Apex outlet, and managed to drop the temperature 8 degrees in just one day.

Moral? ~~~ Ebo-Jagers frozen in the "ON" position can still be useful...

Those heater should be replaced every year. After a heater fails throw it away.
It’s $30 to replace. Most tank crashes are due to heater failures. If you had the heater controller by a heater controller it would have shut off and that wouldn’t happen