2 Heat or not 2 heat.

[fishboys]

So how many of you use a heater? Seems like every time a heater goes back it sticks on and poaches our fish and rocks.

 

I have central air so I don't feel I need a chiller but am wondering about a heater?

 

Can you set up your apex to kill your heater if the tank gets to warm?

 

I try to keep my house between 68-72* so I am not sure how much heat my system will generate and I will be using 4-26's for lights. Tank will not get any direct sunlight.

 

Just a topic I've been wondering about.

[junior]

Heaters are needed, at least in the winter. Ehiem hooked to my controller keeps the tank at 79.5 day and night.

Edited September 9, 2016 by junior

[Knuckledragger]

I have my Reef Keeper Elite set up to shut down the heater when/if it gets to warm. I will soon be getting two heaters for redundancy with each set up to be shut down if things get too warm.

[wmcbane200]

I use my apex with a temp probe to turn my heaters on and off. There the easiest thing to fail so it to me is the most important thing to have on a controller.

 

 

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[Vance164]

I feel heaters are a necessity and I believe with a tempature probe on an apex it can be set to shut off your heater when the specified temp is reached. I know from freshwater world alot of people prefer to run 2 smaller heaters so if one fails the tank doesn't overheat to rapidly or cool off too much. But the apex with a temp probe and a heater with some kind of thermostat should be pretty solid redundancy!

[The ReefBox]

Yep apex controlled heaters are the only way

[TheClark]

Apex controlled, with Apex alerts.

 

Use heater thermostat too.  That is your second layer of protection.

 

If your tank needs a 200 watt heater, use 2 100s or 3 75s.  That is your third layer of protection.

 

Following all of this, it is pretty hard to cook your tank.

[Reefer503]

Heaters are needed, having your home temp at 68-72 as you stated will only bring the water down to a temp colder than your inhabitant would need. 

I keep my two heaters in the sump so there is no risk of it coming into contact with anything in my display and have temp probes in the sump and display tank for monitoring in case of failure. 

[dunpeal]

I run a couple heaters and a fan into a diy temp controller. Stc 1000 I think but the Fahrenheit version.

[Exodus]

IMO Heaters aren't necessarily needed, its a personal preference really. Though there are a couple other factors involved. I have noticed the water in my tank is always 4 Degrees higher than the temperature in the living room , no mind you I have central Heating so therefore as long as I keep the house around 70 degrees I should have no issues, though my new tank i prefer to simply keep my tank within 1 degree as often as possible, for many years on my larger tanks I never did run a heater and never saw any negative effects other than from occasional power outages.

[Electrokate]

I just googled temp alert aquarium and a number of companies' products popped up... I am not yet up to the cost of a pair of monitoring systems for my tanks so I use a digital thermometer with alarm set to 83 so I can catch it before it hits lethal, and a heater that is small enough to hopefully not have the ability to quickly do much damage. I get my alarmed thermometer at World of Wet Pets, they last years but don't splash water on them! Batteries are replaceable. Also I use a separate thermostat instead of the built in heater thermostat, mines not digital and now off the market, well over 10 years old but others are available that hopefully will be similarly low maintenance and long lived. I taped the knob once set where I wanted it after accidentally bumping it a few times. The alarm also will go off if the tank goes down to 76. Pretty sure that little alarmed thing has saved my reef at least a couple dozen times, mostly in summer when I needed to add fans to the sump to cool it.

Edited September 10, 2016 by Electrokate

[TheClark]

I use these for the incubator and my son's tank.  Thirty five bucks, plug and play.  Plug it in, set the temp, and you are protected.

 

Optionally you can turn on the alarms that Eletrokate mentioned.

 

https://www.amazon.com/Inkbird-Itc-308-Temperature-Controller-Thermostat/dp/B011296704/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1473648075&sr=8-3&keywords=temperature+controller

 

ITC 308

[Fragged]

As an MH user I have found no need for a heater. My tank seems to do well with the temp swings in the evening. The "swing" is only a couple degrees....3 is the highest I have seen. This is the 8th tank I have ran like this. No heater has been owned for the past 6 years. To avoid confusion, started with a 12g and upgraded multiple times moving livestock over and over which we all know they love to do. Heat has never been an issue, chilling water was an issue for one season but now that too is no longer a problem. $10 fix to chill water

Edited September 12, 2016 by Fragged