Heater Controller - is it really necessary?

[StatelineReefer]

I have had a heater failure before in 2002. Lost a solon wrasse, a gorgeous sailfin tang, all my frags, some anemone and pistol shrimp I'd collected in the gulf, and my entire microfauna population. Now I run a pair of titanium 300 watts with a helios controller. I have that backed up by running the helios on my Hydros power bar with it's temp sensor as a backup. The sensors are in two different places in the sump, Hydros at the inlet to tell me the tank's temp, and Helios in the return pump chamber. Helios is set to shut off at 81F, Hydros is set to shut off at 81.5F.

 

[TheBear78]

I'm running a smaller tank - 13.5gallon EVO specifically, I have a 50W heater in it, so given the wattage does this mean that it can only heat the water so much even if the internal thermostat fails?

It depends entirely on the ambient temperature.
We had a hot spell recently in the UK and I was seeing water temperatures around 27 degrees C (~81 F) and the heaters were off for days on end. Obvously if they were stuck on in those temperatures it would have nuked everything.
I expect that they would in normal temperatures aswell although when its particularly cool i have had to add another heater if it struggled.

 

[Tamberav]

The only heater I don't have on a controller is the IM one that costs $$$$... it has an alarm system and seems well made. A regular heater with an inkbird is cheaper tho.

 

[mdb_talon]

It depends entirely on the ambient temperature.
We had a hot spell recently in the UK and I was seeing water temperatures around 27 degrees C (~81 F) and the heaters were off for days on end. Obvously if they were stuck on in those temperatures it would have nuked everything.
I expect that they would in normal temperatures aswell although when its particularly cool i have had to add another heater if it struggled.

Agree with this, but also add that things like humidity level and airflow also impact how much a heater can increase temp. Generally the more evap you have the less a heater is able to increase temp... so in a scenario where someone has glass tops (or plastic top with integrated lights) even a small heater can raise the temp significantly above ambient temps.

 

[Tired]

An Inkbird is, what, $25? Not much of a price to pay to potentially save your entire tank from painful, miserable deaths.

 

[dschuffert]

I think they are important. I also control the outlet that the heater controller is powered with via a Neptune Apex. The heater controller is a convenience that could fail (although I haven't had one fail yet) and the Apex unit will shut off the electrical outlet if the temperature exceeds a threshold I set.