controller malfunction, tank hit 90 degrees

[ReeferNoob77]

My elite aquatics controller malfunctioned and kept power to my heater going, I didn't notice it until it was at 90.1 degrees F. I haven't had time today yet to completely assess the loss but I know most of my fish and coral are dead.

Once I pull all the dead from the tank and do a water change are there any gotcha's that may be lurking I should look into?

thanks.

 

[ihavecrabs]

My elite aquatics controller malfunctioned and kept power to my heater going, I didn't notice it until it was at 90.1 degrees F. I haven't had time today yet to completely assess the loss but I know most of my fish and coral are dead.

Once I pull all the dead from the tank and do a water change are there any gotcha's that may be lurking I should look into?

thanks.

I'm sorry to hear this.

If you pulled the fish and dead coral early enough (before they could start to decompose, then you should be fine. You may get a small cycle. To keep the rest of your survivors safe, I would recommend keeping an eye on ammonia for the short-term. You could proactively run carbon but insure you do not strip your water of all nutrients.

As far as the heater issue, I'm not terribly familiar with the Elite Aquatics, but assume it is similar to the RKE/L or Apex in that it has a separate temp probe to maintain independent control of the heater through the power cord. I recommend the following changes next time you set this up:

1. Heater Size: If it takes a 300W to heat the tank, purchase two 150W heaters instead of a single 300W heater. This eliminates the potential for a single heater to malfunction and overheat the tank. This is most often the single point of failure when heating a tank.
   
2. Heater/Controller Settings: The controller is best to maintain the maximum temperature; however, they can sometimes fail or a temp probe can be dislodged and exposed to air causing the hetaer to stay on indefinitely. Set the controller at the intended temperature, but also set the heaters themselves only a degree or two higher than the intended temperature. This will ensure that if your controller malfunctions and tries to keep the heaters on, they'll turn themselves off once their internal thermostat reaches the max temperature.

If you have a remote sump or a lower turnover rate through the sump, you may have to adjust the heaters to allow 3-4 degrees higher that way the display maintains temperature. Either way, if your regular temperature is 80F, this would only allow a maximum of 84-85F peaks.

I hope this helps and sorry again to hear about your losses.

 

[ReeferNoob77]

Digital Aquatics controller sorry not elite, was going from memory.
I currently have a 800W Finnex heater, on/off is totally controlled by the controller. That is a good idea for the two heaters I would need to have them individually controlled though or get some with temp sensors included.
I did not know about the exposed temp probe issue, figured if it was removed from the water the temp probe would just indicate the air temp it is picking up.

Thanks for your feedback.

 

[ihavecrabs]

Digital Aquatics controller sorry not elite, was going from memory.
I currently have a 800W Finnex heater, on/off is totally controlled by the controller. That is a good idea for the two heaters I would need to have them individually controlled though or get some with temp sensors included.
I did not know about the exposed temp probe issue, figured if it was removed from the water the temp probe would just indicate the air temp it is picking up.

Thanks for your feedback.

No worries.

Individually controlled or utilize a splitter and have them both plugged into the same outlet. Either way, as long as the controller is turning them on and off it should be OK. This is just in case one of them gets stuck in the on position.

As far as the temp probe being exposed to air, picking up the room's temperature is the problem. Most of us keep our homes between 68-72 degrees which means the controller would be telling your heater to turn on and heat (based on the air temperature). In this case, the heater would continue to heat the water to its maximum potential because the controller will not see any difference as it is still reading air temp. That's why if you set the heaters temp max at say 82, the heater itself will turn itself off if it is functioning properly.

Good luck!

 

[Dom]

1. Heater/Controller Settings: The controller is best to maintain the maximum temperature; however, they can sometimes fail or a temp probe can be dislodged and exposed to air causing the hetaer to stay on indefinitely. Set the controller at the intended temperature, but also set the heaters themselves only a degree or two higher than the intended temperature. This will ensure that if your controller malfunctions and tries to keep the heaters on, they'll turn themselves off once their internal thermostat reaches the max temperature.

GREAT idea!

 

[chuckfu5]

No worries.

Individually controlled or utilize a splitter and have them both plugged into the same outlet. Either way, as long as the controller is turning them on and off it should be OK. This is just in case one of them gets stuck in the on position.

As far as the temp probe being exposed to air, picking up the room's temperature is the problem. Most of us keep our homes between 68-72 degrees which means the controller would be telling your heater to turn on and heat (based on the air temperature). In this case, the heater would continue to heat the water to its maximum potential because the controller will not see any difference as it is still reading air temp. That's why if you set the heaters temp max at say 82, the heater itself will turn itself off if it is functioning properly.

Good luck!

I don’t think utilizing a splitter and having them plugged into the same outlet would work. You would be defeating the purpose of having two smaller heaters as if one went haywire and the temperature rose then the controller would have no choice but to shut them both down.

 

[Livinlocal]

I don’t think utilizing a splitter and having them plugged into the same outlet would work. You would be defeating the purpose of having two smaller heaters as if one went haywire and the temperature rose then the controller would have no choice but to shut them both down.

Wouldn’t master, Being that there is only one temp probe for the controller, the apex wouldn’t know which heater to shut off if one failed and continued to heat the tank, so they would both need to be programmed shut off

 

[ihavecrabs]

I don’t think utilizing a splitter and having them plugged into the same outlet would work. You would be defeating the purpose of having two smaller heaters as if one went haywire and the temperature rose then the controller would have no choice but to shut them both down.

How is the controller going to know which one went haywire? It'll just make sure the outlet turns off when temp is reached

Hope this helps.

 

[ontop27]

Do you have it on the right outlet? I got rid of mine but 2 are mechanical 2 are solid state. I believe they DA tells you to use the solid state which I think are the middle 2 outlets off the top of my head.

 

[ReeferNoob77]

Well I have 5 fish left which is better than it could have been. The only corals that seemed to make it were my zoo's and grass, but they are still fully closed up. All crustaceans except two hermits that I found were dead:(. I still have to sift the sand bed.

The ammonia is back down to zero (was at .25 when I tested), I dumped some live bacteria in figuring the heat killed everything.

I ordered two heaters with temp controls attached and will add them to same socket so they turn on and off together. The heaters are attached to the 4th socket which is mechanical, didn't realize it would make a difference. What are the plus/minus for the socket types?

 

[ontop27]

It doesnt make much sense to me because the new apex is all mechanical but i owned rkl in the past. Rkl reasoning is that heater shuts off and on so much it can wear out the mechanical switch and make it stick off or on. Looks like you got hit with on

 

[ihavecrabs]

It doesnt make much sense to me because the new apex is all mechanical but i owned rkl in the past. Rkl reasoning is that heater shuts off and on so much it can wear out the mechanical switch and make it stick off or on. Looks like you got hit with on

You can definitely plug a light into the outlet and check to see if it no longer works properly.

I plan on switching the outlets my heaters use every couple of years to spread the wear across the whole unit.

 

[Daltrey]

Exactly why I use two 250 watt Eheim Jager tru temp heaters in my 200 gallon setup hooked up to an apex. Each heater is hooked up to a seperate eb8 on seperate 20 amp circuits. It would be impossible to cook my tank.

The cheapest piece of equipment we run can do the most damage.

 

[Greybeard]

Most common problem I've seen with a DA Reefkeeper is that you set the 'default' configuration option to 'on'.... which is what the manual suggests that you do. In that configuration, if the power bar looses communication to the head unit, it will turn the heater outlet on, and leave it there. If you're using a heater without a temp controller, or have the heater's temp controller set way high, this can easily cook your aquarium.

The ambient temperature in my home is normally 70f. Add in heat from pumps and whatnot, the tank, without a heater, isn't going to drop under 72f under normal conditions. That temp sounds much more healthy to my tank than 90f does. I set the default to 'off'.

 

[rock_lobster]

That is an incredibly dangerous setup.. its better to have more than one fail safes like a working heater with a thermostat and a digital control for emergency shutoff. It is not good to have a heater that is going to overheat your tank if ever left on(unless you are saying that both your heater and your DA failed at the same time). but the dual heater suggestion is definitely the best option so that your tank cant overheat.

 

[five.five-six]

In the future, best practices is to set the thermostat on the heater to a safe level. Perhaps 80 degrees. Eliminates the single point of failure. Same with a chiller, set it’s Tstat for 76 or whatever you think fits best your tank.

 

[Greybeard]

The heater I selected doesn't have an internal thermometer. No choice but to rely on the controller. Safe? No.. but with the controller set up correctly, it's not a horrible risk.

One day, when I replace the heater (I like to do so every couple of years anyway), I'll probably buy one with an internal thermometer.

 

[five.five-six]

Several of the top end heaters don’t have Tstats, that’s true. I use ebo/ehime which aren’t the best heaters but still very good

 

[don_chuwish]

I don't have the luxury of separate circuits for my EB8s, but I've done what I can for redundancy and failsafes.
2 x 'dumb' Finnex Titanium 300W heaters. Either one can maintain temp on it's own, but would be slow to 'cook' the whole 120G.
Finnex plug into 2 x Inkbird ITC308 temp controllers, each with their own temp probes.
Inkbirds plug into EB8s, one each.
Apex temp probe keeps temp in a tight 0.5 degree range around 78. Turning the Inkbirds on and off as needed.
Inkbirds are set to 82 max, with 1 degree allowable differential. If Apex has some issue that keeps the EB8 outlet on, the Inkbird will turn off the heater at 82. (I may reduce this to 81, the more I think about it.)
Apex also has code to use each heater half the day (thanks to zombie on Neptune Systems' forums!). I won't get into details since the OP isn't using Apex.
With only 300W it's ok to use the TRIAC outlets. According to @RussM 500W and above is where you want to use the relay outlets.

 

[ReeferNoob77]

The new heaters came in, hoping to get to them this weekend. I had a backup heater from my mixing tank that is doing a good job keeping tank at 78. I also reprogrammed the controller adding alarms which weren't on there before. This is just flashing and a low level beep, but better than nothing.

I ended up loosing all my corals, except the grass seems to be coming around a little now. I have two tube anemones, one of which ejected itself from it's tube and now made another. that was neat to watch.

Planning on another deep cleaning this weekend, see were we are at then.