Humanzee1966
Community Member
Is it a good idea to have one controller for both the heater and the chiller? What brands are good? I'm not doing APEX so I need other suggestions. Thank you!
Controller for both heater and chiller
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ca1ore
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Here is where you can get a pre-wired ranco dual stage controller so you don't have to deal with electrical on your own. You can also customize the length of all four cords (1 power, 2 for heater/chiller, and 1 probe)
www.rancoetc.com
Ranco ETC-211000-000: 2 Stage Prewired Temperature Controller
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Humanzee1966
Community Member
Here is where you can get a pre-wired ranco dual stage controller so you don't have to deal with electrical on your own. You can also customize the length of all four cords (1 power, 2 for heater/chiller, and 1 probe)
Ranco ETC-211000-000: 2 Stage Prewired Temperature Controller
Thank you I had no idea this existed and it looks quite great. Love the customizable cord length option!!
Sailfin11
Well-Known Member
The Inkbird temp controller would work at an affordable price point - they've worked well for me on my tanks. Here's a link to one with both a heating and cooling outlet (Amazon link)
No problem. One of the reasons I chose Ranco as my go to is because it's commercial and not "hobby grade". It's also UL listed and as such it undergoes extra testing to ensure it's a robust electrical device. I've used cheap non UL listed power supplies from Amazon in the past and they were not great (over heated and at some point it started to smoke). This is also why many of the expensive products we buy (e.g. Radions, Vortech, etc) use parts that are UL listed like their power supply.
I have very limited experience with reefs, but I have used Inkbird controllers for other applications for heating and cooling. They worked well on my meat dry-curing chamber, and they are very affordable. I ran a refrigerator for the cool cycle with a 1500W heater inside for the heat cycle.
The one Sailfin11 linked above is on sale ($10 off) for about another half an hour. When that one is not on sale, you might consider the Inkbird ITC-308S which is specialized for aquariums (it has a different probe to prevent corossion) and is about the exact same cost as the ITC-308 regular price.
Admittedly, these are cheap and for hobby-use, so they may not be as dependable long-term as other controllers that cost more.
The one Sailfin11 linked above is on sale ($10 off) for about another half an hour. When that one is not on sale, you might consider the Inkbird ITC-308S which is specialized for aquariums (it has a different probe to prevent corossion) and is about the exact same cost as the ITC-308 regular price.
Admittedly, these are cheap and for hobby-use, so they may not be as dependable long-term as other controllers that cost more.
Yep Ranco dual stage..
Another option is the Hydros Control 2.
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Humanzee1966
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Now I know why I paid so much for those Vortechs and Vectras lol
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