Aquarium heaters/apex

[Michael F]

Ok, so here is my situation. I have an apex on my tank. My heaters thermostat has went out and now my apex is turning on and off the heater full time. I have read multiple through processes on this. Some say the apex is going to be ok, because the relays are meant to be turned on and off. The other thought process is that its not made to be kicked on 18,000 times a year. So looking at buying another heater with a controller to plug the heater into the controller, then that into the apex. What heater would you go with? What controller? I have a water box 130.4 as my tank. What would you do?

 

[Ranjib]

Its should be ok, apex has hysteresis in their temperature control, if i recall correctly. Lets see what other say.

 

[Ranjib]

Well, fro ancillary controllers, I use my own (reef-pi). You can consider inkbrid or ranco

 

[Brett S]

For what it’s worth, my heater’s thermostats work fine, but I still have my apex turn the heaters on and off.

I have the heater thermostat set a degree or two higher than where the apex normally keeps the tank, so if something happens and the apex outlet gets stuck on then the heater’s thermostat will work as a backup to keep the temp from rising too much, but the apex is what controls the heaters.

My system has been configured this way with two heaters on two different power bars (for redundancy) for more than 3 years and I haven’t had any issues.

 

[cilyjr]

My apex has been the primary control for my heat since I purchased an apex (around 2010) and have not had trouble.
Of course there is a possibility any of the switches Apex could fail for any number of reasons (both the TRIAC and mechanical) but I'm pretty comfortable relying on them for intended use.

 

[jccaclimber]

My Apex is the primary control for my heaters. That said, it is not the only control. Should my temperature probe ever fall out of my tank, have the sump level end up draining below the heater level, etc. the heater's internal control will shut it off. Yes, I do annually test to make sure this is the case.
Also, you can reduce the on/off frequency of your heaters by either running multiple smaller ones at staggered trigger points, or simply widening the acceptable operating zone. Setting your heater for off at 77.2 *F and on at 77.1 *F is going to result in a lot more on/off cycles than on at 77.1 *F and off at say 78.1 *F.