Ep14: Reef tank temperature, redundancy and management. | BRS/WWC System

[randyBRS]

Happy Friday R2R's!

If you didn't think there could be a whole episode on temperature control for a simple and stable reef tank, Ryan has proved you wrong.

Today he discusses ways to manage temp in the tank to maintain stability, prevent catastrophe and provide an environment for the tank's corals and fish that keep them happy and healthy!

 

[Captain Quint]

@randyBRS great video and always nice to see Ryan.

Thanks for sharing.

 

[Victoriajoybrewer]

I have a heater i got with my tank used 4 years ago and the thing still works i took it off the tank a few weeks ago and now it gets used for heating fresh saltwater. Wish i knew what brand it was.

 

[DarkSky]

Missing option: Never!

I replace my heaters yearly, so I haven't experienced a failure in tank yet. I use Eheim Jager heaters and consider their yearly replacement a cost of maintenance. Spread out over twelve months, it's a $5 a month cost to replace my two heaters. I save the two I pull from my system and use one to heat my water change water, and store the other as a back up. The previous two I had as back up /water change heaters go into the trash.

 

[randyBRS]

Missing option: Never!

Added for you.

 

[User1]

Added for you.

Thanks While not for me I also voted never. Never say never, right? Fail safe and backups are important so thanks for taking the time to put this together. Have a great weekend!

Edit: BTW - what are the tiny fish in the tank behind Ryan? Seems like whatever they are you have a bakers dozen easy in there

 

[Ryanbrs]

Of all the polls we have ever done I think this one is the most interesting to me lol. I seriously hate heaters

 

[DarkSky]

Of all the polls we have ever done I think this one is the most interesting to me lol. I seriously hate heaters

Ever consider a closed loop tied into your water heater? Higher upfront cost in exchange for potentially more reliability?

 

[andrewkw]

What was the all black ones that would explode? I can't recall the name but there was a recall, in fact the recall got so big that big al's (chain fish store) would take them back with no receipt / questions asked. I had one of those explode, thankfully it was in a mixing tank. Other then that I've had some die but always in off. Usually what I do is tape the date on my heaters and I try and replace them about every 2 years. If they are still in good shape I will use them for less essential tasks, such as qt.

 

[penguin_free]

On my 120 gallon, I run a single heating element on an aqua logic digital controller. Believe it or not, the heater itself is an old visitherm I've had since the 1990s. Obviously I don't use its internal thermostat at all. As far as the aqua logic, I'm on my second controller. The first one lasted about 15 years.

This tank has an apex unit on it, and yes it is set to message me if the temp goes out of range. I'm never away for long, so it cannot go too nuts if something fails.

On my smaller tank, and for my salt water mixing container, I use a generic controller and any old submersible heater with a bimetal thermostat. Heater set to max, controller set to 78F. This controller fails to 'off', and it's a big bright red display in a project box sitting on top of the canopy. When that fails, I see it reading 'err' within a few hours, and it generally means it's time to wire in a new thermocouple.

 

[don_chuwish]

I've never had a 'good' heater fail. A cheapo that came with a Tetra tank kit failed but it wasn't doing anything critical at the time, just heating a salt mix. I'm guessing <2 years on that one so that was my vote.
Currently running 2 x 300W Finnex Titanium, Inkbirds for failsafe high temp shutoff, and plugged into different EB8s. Apex actually does the temp control - using each heater in 12 hour 'shifts'. The heaters have been in use 3+ years now so I should be on the lookout for a sale!

 

[Jase4224]

I use eheim Jagers and the only one that failed was because it was in my tank cabinet and my wife confused it with the vacuum cleaner and cooked it lol

My jagers are years old and I’ll be using them on my next reef BUT have ordered a thermostat to control them.