Boggled by Heater Setup

[MolaMola]

I read quite a few informative heater threads here multiple times during summer but none were exactly my situation and I'd like to set my heaters up for redundancy and to preserve the Apex relay but am worried I will make an error and not have it set up correctly.
Equipment: Apex, Inkbird with two outlets, Eheim (or other brand) heaters with internal thermostat. (seems like no thermostat could be better but I have heaters already.)
Placement: I like having at least one heater each in display and sump in case of power outage. I also have the Apex probes in the display because it does not bother me and there seems to be no good place in the sump bc the fuge section has a big square LED light mostly covering it, the drain section is turbulent and has skimmer pump, and the return section is near the fuge light and may have dosing lines again in the future and has a wide top surface. Also, it seems like I would have to move the probe height anytime the return pump.

I am unsure if I can/should plug two heaters into one Inkbird or just use two Inkbirds.
I see some people use the heater's thermostat as primary bc it is the least expensive, but it is also the least reliable so I'm not sure that's good for my situation
Others use the Inkbird as primary.
If I have heaters in display and sump I guess I should use two Inkbirds so I have their little probes in each location in case of power outage.

Any suggestions?

(For you Ranco fans, I plan to use that on a tank that has no Apex, but I'm working one tank at a time.)

 

[Alexander1312]

The Eheim heaters should be good.

Not sure about your concern with the built-in thermostat if you have connected the heater to the Inkbird for redundancy.

So - heater controls on and off. Inkbird is set slightly higher and will catch if the thermostat fails. This would be the redundancy.

And if you have want the APEX as third line of defense, you can set it to the same range as the Inkbird but higher than the thermostat, in case the thermostat fails and coincidentally the Inkbird too.

Only thing I would not do is to plug in two heaters into the Inkbird.

And too much reliance on the Inkbird is questionable to some, as they seem to fail occasionally too.

 

[Kensington Reefer]

Aqua logic or Ranco single stage with titanium probe

 

[MolaMola]

Aqua logic or Ranco single stage with titanium probe

I might be asking about that when I redo lowboy setup. Ranco acquired.

 

[grizfyrfyter]

If I'm using a heater with built in thermostat, it use ehiem and I use the apex relay as a backup but I undersized and use dual heaters. This isn't as efficient but if one gets stuck on, it's not full blast and it give finer grain temp control. One heater kicks in before the other so if there is something pulling heat from the tank where one heater can't keep up, the second heater kicks in and the apex will shut them both off if they hit a threshold.

Right now I am using a big BRS titanium heater that came with a system (nib) for giggles but it is not on a redundant controller, just on apex control.

 

[PjFish]

Most people plug heaters into ink bird or ranco then some plug that ink bird into another ink bird for redundancy.. Myself I use two lower watt heaters per tank plugged into ink birds which have been running for 8 years straight no issues. Think Ive gone through 3 heaters that failed. Lately been using my digital meat temp probe to check tanks which is very reliable.

 

[KWOO008]

The Eheim heaters should be good.

I have a box full of Eheim heaters with bad thermostats (from OG ones with the solid green power cords to the latest version) that make this post more relevant than we want. I have evolved to EXPECT heaters to fail sooner than later these days.

 

[grizfyrfyter]

All heaters have a lifespan. Ehiem are more likely to live up to their lifespan. Using an Ehiem heater doesn't mean you get to leave it in service for 3 years without expecting it to fail

Most others I have used failed within 8 months, ime. I don't let a stuck-on thermostat trash the heater, just need controllers for them. Stuck-off sucks. Broken/leaking is a whole different convo

 

[Alexander1312]

I have been reading too many times about how people cooked their tanks due to a failed heater.

Thinking this through properly is well-spent time.

I like the Helios best due to their dry-run detection ability, which was an issue several months ago when I cleaned my sump and turned the BRS titanium heater on to early.

But I know their controller can fail too. So this needs redundancy. Connected to Hydros.

The Rancho in my display tank is currently unemployed, will need to change this, since these are the best controllers.

 

[Royce023]

I have been reading too many times about how people cooked their tanks due to a failed heater.

Thinking this through properly is well-spent time.

I like the Helios best due to their dry-run detection ability, which was an issue several months ago when I cleaned my sump and turned the BRS titanium heater on to early.

But I know their controller can fail too. So this needs redundancy. Connected to Hydros.

The Rancho in my display tank is currently unemployed, will need to change this, since these are the best controllers.

My Aqua Logic (Ranco) been in operation since 2019/20 I believe. It has been rock solid without issues. I just don't like how it looks like on my contoller board lol.