Dual heaters / inkbird / apex and putting it all together

aggrofish

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So I’ve read that you don’t want the apex eb32 switching on/off constantly controlling your heater and it should be used more as a fail safe like turning off power to the heater (Inkbird) if the temp gets too high.

I’m thinking dual 300w heaters for redundancy. One heater set at 78, with another set lower to say 74 or 75. My thinking is if the temp gets that low there’s a problem with the main unit. Does the inkbird with two outlets let you independently control two heaters in that manner or would you need two units?

You would then connect the inkbird to the eb32 and cut off power if the temp gets too high, like a heater failing in the on position?

am I thinking about this all wrong or on the right trac?
 

Dystopium

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Woking on setting up my tank now, but as it stands I am plugging in the inkbird into my EB832. It will have one heater (Primary) connected and controlled by it set to ~77.5 to ~78 degrees. I have another (Backup) plugged directly into the EB832 set as a failsafe running on the Apex Probe. Should either fail on I kill power to both.
 

Tplummer

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Woking on setting up my tank now, but as it stands I am plugging in the inkbird into my EB832. It will have one heater (Primary) connected and controlled by it set to ~77.5 to ~78 degrees. I have another (Backup) plugged directly into the EB832 set as a failsafe running on the Apex Probe. Should either fail on I kill power to both.
I had a problem with that setup. When the eb832 was set to auto, the entire plug would switch to off. I couldnt find any code that would trigger the condition. i went from heater, to in,bird controller, to eb with code to shut down when the temp exceeded what i had set on the heater. Just watch for that...may not affect you..
 
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aggrofish

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Woking on setting up my tank now, but as it stands I am plugging in the inkbird into my EB832. It will have one heater (Primary) connected and controlled by it set to ~77.5 to ~78 degrees. I have another (Backup) plugged directly into the EB832 set as a failsafe running on the Apex Probe. Should either fail on I kill power to both.
So the one plugged directly into the power bar is set lower as to not turn off and on constantly? If it goes on it’s either abnormally cold or your primary is failing right?

I did find out that the inkbird is on/off at the same time for both outlet’s, so one wouldn’t work.
 

Greg P

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So I’ve read that you don’t want the apex eb32 switching on/off constantly controlling your heater and it should be used more as a fail safe like turning off power to the heater (Inkbird) if the temp gets too high.

I’m thinking dual 300w heaters for redundancy. One heater set at 78, with another set lower to say 74 or 75. My thinking is if the temp gets that low there’s a problem with the main unit. Does the inkbird with two outlets let you independently control two heaters in that manner or would you need two units?

You would then connect the inkbird to the eb32 and cut off power if the temp gets too high, like a heater failing in the on position?

am I thinking about this all wrong or on

You can set your Apex with a hysteresis for the first heater, and have the Inkbird as a fallback.

Did I understand your question correctly?
 
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aggrofish

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You can set your Apex with a hysteresis for the first heater, and have the Inkbird as a fallback.

Did I understand your question correctly?
Hell, I’m not sure I even understand my question now. I dont have anything set up yet. I’ve only plugged the apex in to make sure it works, while fixing my sump and chiseling rock.
 

Alchameth

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I have around 175G total volume and I have an Inkbird with 2 300W heaters. Inkbird is set to 76-77F and the Apex outlet is set:

Fallback ON
Set ON
If Tmp > 77.5 Then OFF
If Tmp < 76.5 Then ON
If Tmp < 70.0 Then OFF
If Output Cor_20 = OFF Then OFF

I have a 500W set as a backup on a separate outlet on the Apex set to kick on if the tank drops below 75.5 and turns off once it hits 76.5. As a precaution, if that outlet ever kicks on I get an alarm notification.

They do make Inkbirds with 2 probes that each outlet can be controlled independently. However, the inkbird temp probes for that one are not the plastic aquarium ones so you'll need to waterproof them if you go that route.
 

Dystopium

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So the one plugged directly into the power bar is set lower as to not turn off and on constantly? If it goes on it’s either abnormally cold or your primary is failing right?

I did find out that the inkbird is on/off at the same time for both outlet’s, so one wouldn’t work.
You are correct that I didn't want the apex switching on/off all the time. The Apex controlled secondary is there for really cold days, or primary failure. I am only using one of the two inkbird ports. Connections look like:
Primary EB832 -> Inkbird -> 500W Finnex TH
Secondary EB832 -> 500W Finnex TH
 

Greg P

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Hell, I’m not sure I even understand my question now. I dont have anything set up yet. I’ve only plugged the apex in to make sure it works, while fixing my sump and chiseling rock.
Maybe this will help. My setup is as follows;
Main heaters plugged into controller (your Apex, my RKE) set to ideal tank params, with heaters calibrated and then set to a couple degrees higher than target.
Backup heater plugged into Ranco controller (your Inkbird) set 1 degree lower than desired tank temp, with controller alarm to alert me.
 

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