Neptune Aquatics

Heater and controller recommendations

henergizer

henergizer

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Welp, what I thought would never happen to me finally happened.

My heater crapped out and heated my tank to 90F.... not sure how long it’s been at that temp but everything is closed and pissed.

Lights are shut off, heater was removed and floating ice packs to cool the tank currently.

Anyone have any recommendations for a good heater and a simple temp controller?


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Ranco Temperature controller. If you have two heaters or a heater/fan combo, the two stage Ranco is awesome.

I haven't had any issues with the Finnex titanium heaters (the one with no thermostat), though I just started using them a few months ago. I've also been a fan of Neotherms.
 
I'm a fan of the Eheim Jager heaters. They're a bit on the large side for their wattage, but have so far been robust for me. Previously I used Aqueon Pro heaters which did great in freshwater, but started failing on me pretty regularly after a couple years in marine applications.
I use my Apex for my control with the heater's internal thermostat as a backup. For the non-Apex folks I've heard Ranco controllers are solid.

I'm not a fan of the non-thermostat heaters, even with controllers. If the Ranco (or other) controller falls out of the tank, has the sump water level drain below the thermocouple, thermocouple in the sump with heaters in the display (or the other way around) and the return pump fails, whatever, you end up with an overheated area. You just found out what happens when you have a system that can be taken out with a single point of failure. Don't replace it with a different system that can be taken out with a single point of failure.
 
In my opinion you’ve got 4 options. Not necessarily in this order.
Apex
Ranco
Aquatop digital titanium with controller and temp probe
Multiple undersized eheim jager so one sticking on wont kill you.
 
jccaclimber said:
I'm a fan of the Eheim Jager heaters. They're a bit on the large side for their wattage, but have so far been robust for me. Previously I used Aqueon Pro heaters which did great in freshwater, but started failing on me pretty regularly after a couple years in marine applications.
I use my Apex for my control with the heater's internal thermostat as a backup. For the non-Apex folks I've heard Ranco controllers are solid.

I'm not a fan of the non-thermostat heaters, even with controllers. If the Ranco (or other) controller falls out of the tank, has the sump water level drain below the thermocouple, thermocouple in the sump with heaters in the display (or the other way around) and the return pump fails, whatever, you end up with an overheated area. You just found out what happens when you have a system that can be taken out with a single point of failure. Don't replace it with a different system that can be taken out with a single point of failure.
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Me neither, but that's why I my Ranco's with finnex heaters (no thermstat) are only running with on an apex. Otherwise, with no apex, I usually run a Ranco with a neotherm.
 
More important than any single heater or controller brand, is a good redundant heater strategy.

- MUST have 2 controllers, the main controller that turns it off and on all day, and a failsafe that turns it off if it gets stuck on. You can do this with the on board heater controller plus a remote one, or 2 remote ones (I do the later, with Apex as the primary and InkBird as the backup). An integrated controller would also be a fine backup as long as it is reasonably reliable. I’ve heard Ranco’s are great for either primary or backup controller, but since I knew I was going to use the Apex as the primary it was overkill (setup and space) for me.

- Preferable to have 2 heaters, each of which would barely keep up with your heater needs, with both together they are rated appropriately for the system. This way if one fails “on” or one fails “off”, either way you are ok and have time to discover the problem and fix it before you have fish soup. Separate primary and backup controller for each is optimal. I have 2 heaters, the 1st set to trigger 0.2 deg higher than the 2nd, and the 2nd set to turn off 0.2 deg below the 1st. So the large majority of the time my 1st heater is on and barely keeping up, and my 2nd heater is off. Relatively few on/off switches for both.

- Preferable to have an alarm system for temp too high, temp too low. Bonus if you have power monitoring alert with Apex for when Apex thinks the heater should be on but it’s not drawing power, mostly because you otherwise might not realize that a heater has failed otherwise in a well designed dual-heater system. This is the main reason I use the Apex as the primary controller for the heaters.
 
And I use titanium heaters from Finnex. I don’t understand why glass heaters that can shatter in your tank are even a thing. Plus their higher failure rate.
 
I have an Apex with Titanium connected to it. I was thinking adding a second heater on one of the available ports and leave that port in the "off" position, then if the Apex sends me notice that the main heater is not functioning properly, I turn the main heater off and turn on the spare one. All can be done remotely.
 
I'm using a finnex titanium (with its own thermostat) on an apex programmed to shut it off if temps get too high. This is my second finnex and the previous one failed with the thermostat reading higher temps than the tank was actually at, so it stopped turning on. Luckily no harm done - tanks generally handle being too cool for a few days better than they handle overheating.
 
Ah yes, heater failure. Nothing like combining electronics, heat, high current, and salt water.
Heaters are one of those things where redundancy is key, and also pretty cheap.

The only thing to add to above:
I prefer heaters where the controller is somewhat external, not built into the heating element itself.
Keeps the heat and water farther from the electronics.

I have Dual JBJ True Temp titanium heaters on an Apex.
 
Thank you everyone for their recommendations! I was able to find a ehiem heater for temp use until i decide what route to go.

I’m a bit old fashion and stayed away from fancy controllers, but I think I want to dive into an Apex system. Maybe an Apex Jr to start.




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While the newer Lite looks like a decent option, I always found the Jr. to be too limited. Used Classics are getting reasonably cheap, I would consider going that route.
 
the EL (lite?) is a good choice, I believe the only things you don't get is ORP and salinity which, IMO, are fine. If you're really concerned about salinity you can always get the salinity monitor + probe for around $200, still under the price of the "full" version, and while yeah if you wanted to do ORP later you'll end up spending more than the full version, you still won't spend as much if you had to upgrade from an junior version (which they don't sell anymore I believe) to the full (newer) version.
 
sfsuphysics said:
the EL (lite?) is a good choice, I believe the only things you don't get is ORP and salinity which, IMO, are fine. If you're really concerned about salinity you can always get the salinity monitor + probe for around $200, still under the price of the "full" version, and while yeah if you wanted to do ORP later you'll end up spending more than the full version, you still won't spend as much if you had to upgrade from an junior version (which they don't sell anymore I believe) to the full (newer) version.
Click to expand...
You also lose the 0-10v ports. I bought the EL and a VDM module for the ports and still saved $200 over buying the full apex.
 
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