This is why you should run two heaters

[EricSIny]

About last week I added a new light to the fuge (one of those cheap DIY from HD) and as most of you know these things give off alot of heat! Well anyways about 2 days later I noticed my tank temp raising, first to about 82.5, next day 83.5, next day 85.5.

So thinking the hot humid weather outside and my new light soruce were causing my temp to increase, I some what ignored it and just turned my fan onto high (used for evaporative cooling) and lowered the room temp to 71 (there goes this months electric bill). The next day i came home from work and checked my temp, still 85.5.. hmm ok, I thought. I had other things going on at the moment and livestock looked good so ignored it again.

Well the next day (yesterday morning) I woke up and checked my temp, 86 degrees! *** I said?!

Immediately I started looking around and inspecting my equipment I finally checked both of my 150 watt hydor theo heaters (rated up to 40 gallons each) and to my surprise one was stuck open and not shutting off even when lowered to minimum. I unplugged and removed the heater immediately.

Moral of my story here is ALWAYS run atleast 2 heaters and make sure each individual heater is rated for less than your total water volume. If I had been running a higher wattage heater my tank would of easily overheated on the first day destroying everything Ive worked so hard for.

PLEASE NOTE..I'm in no way bashing hydor here. Hydor makes top notch products and this the 7th hydor theo heater I have owned. I will continue to use their products and will chock this up as a fluke. :thumbsup:

 

[mr. pluto]

not to bash but your title should have read:This is why you should invest in a controller.

 

[coonasssaint]

not to bash but your title should have read:This is why you should invest in a controller.

Was just thinking the samething.

 

[arkaeus]

Exactly why I invested in a RKL (reefkeeperlite) with a titanium heater. Solid, and reliable. No on or off getting stuck BS

 

[D-Nak]

Was just thinking the samething.

+1000. With all of the money, time, and energy we invest in our tanks, a controller should be part of everyone's systems, especially since entry level units are as expensive as they used to be. It only takes one mishap to wipe out the entire tank.

 

[bdwilson]

+1 for the controller, I had a heater stick "on" and nuked the whole tank in about 6 hours. I now use a reef keeper lite and all I use it for is temp control and ATO.

 

[James77]

Far better than using a reef controller, something I keep meaning to do, is using a ranco. You could incorporate it into the reef controller, and even the heater thermostats, for up to 3 catches. Use the ranco to do the controlling, plug it into a reef controller set a couple degree more/less with an email warning, then the actual heaters at ts highest allowable temp.

 

[RRaider]

Far better than using a reef controller, something I keep meaning to do, is using a ranco. You could incorporate it into the reef controller, and even the heater thermostats, for up to 3 catches. Use the ranco to do the controlling, plug it into a reef controller set a couple degree more/less with an email warning, then the actual heaters at ts highest allowable temp.

Exactly the way I have mine set up.

 

[moondoggy4]

Everything has a chance of failing that is why it is a good investment to have a good backup plan. My Reef Keeper I, the temp failed and was reading 126 degrees so my fan never shut off and I was using a lot of water for the top off, lucky I did not have a chiller.

 

[D-Nak]

Far better than using a reef controller, something I keep meaning to do, is using a ranco. You could incorporate it into the reef controller, and even the heater thermostats, for up to 3 catches. Use the ranco to do the controlling, plug it into a reef controller set a couple degree more/less with an email warning, then the actual heaters at ts highest allowable temp.

I personally think that this is a bit overkill. If you have the Ranco sitting around, then it's fine to use, but investing in one seems like extra money spent (fine if you have the money and want a third fail-safe). The controller should act as the back-up if the thermostat on the heater fails and should send a warning if this occurs. The mechanism that controls the Ranco is essentially the same as what most controllers use (a temperature probe) -- it's different if you're setting up an ATO and want redundancy with different devices, such as a float switch in conjunction with a pressure switch or an eye (like what comes with the Tunze Osmolator).

If both the heater and controller fail, then it was just meant to be that you'd have a fried tank. :worried:

 

[EricSIny]

Controller is in the near future, funds just aren't there at the moment.

My intent with this thread was to try and help the many reefers out there who are not using controllers. Lets not forget, these are electronics and they ALL have the possibility of failing at some point one way or another.

If I can help one person then my job is done (I sound like miss America)