Hydros with dual helios controllers and heaters

[BryanM]

I am switching from Apex to hyrdos, and currently I have logic in the programming that uses 1 heater for 12 hours of the day, and the other for the remaining 12 hours of the day, and if something isn't working it will use the "off hours" heater to heat the tank, and the apex will kill either heater if the tank is over temp (failsafe).

I'm having a hard time figuring out of this same setup is even possible in hydros or not (the primary thought behind the apex setup is to not cycle the heaters as much, therefore extending their lifespan).

 

[Reefuzz]

You would have to have the XP8 to do that. This setup would utilize two outlets in the XP8. In the hydros app you’d have to set one controller and heater to be on for your set of time and the other one opposite time of the initial one. I have them set up with two inputs. One temp probe in the sump and one in the tank. Basically I set my IM controller to 78 and my hydros to turn on at 77.4 and turn off at 77.8. Hope this helps answer you question

 

[BryanM]

You would have to have the XP8 to do that. This setup would utilize two outlets in the XP8. In the hydros app you’d have to set one controller and heater to be on for your set of time and the other one opposite time of the initial one. I have them set up with two inputs. One temp probe in the sump and one in the tank. Basically I set my IM controller to 78 and my hydros to turn on at 77.4 and turn off at 77.8. Hope this helps answer you question

Sort of.

Do you set the outputs up as Advanced Generic so you can set up a schedule?

And how do you get the other one to take over if one fails?

 

[n2585722]

I don't use a schedule. I have one heater set at a lower turn on temp than the other one so it will only come on if the other one is not enough. But I am not using heater controllers. My heaters have thermostats built into them and they are set 3 degrees higher than the turn off temp on the Hydros. You would be using the controller to control the actual temp and Hydros would just be backup off. Yes you can use the generic output type with the temp sensor as an input and also set a schedule on each one within the generic output.

 

[BryanM]

I don't use a schedule. I have one heater set at a lower turn on temp than the other one so it will only come on if the other one is not enough. But I am not using heater controllers. My heaters have thermostats built into them and they are set 3 degrees higher than the turn off temp on the Hydros. You would be using the controller to control the actual temp and Hydros would just be backup off. Yes you can use the generic output type with the temp sensor as an input and also set a schedule on each one within the generic output.

I just set them both up as heaters instead for now.

THe apex programming was neat, if you buy in to the idea that heater cycling is why they go bad (I do), then running one for 12 hrs, the other for the other 12 hrs, helps with that a lot.

But I need logic in the Hyrdos that knows if a heater has failed and make the other one in use 24hrs a day then.

I have two very oversized 800w titanium heaters w/o thermostats, they are plugged in to helios controllers.

This is the only "negative" I have w/the hydros.

Fact is I love the idea of a collective and redundancy, I feel its a far better made product, I already had a wave engine v2 (did not know it was a controller, so cable on the way)... and I'm adding an XD for 3 drive ports to power the 4 hydros dosers I bought.

I recently went to reef moonshinders and have tons to dose. So I Have 8 dosing heads now.

 

[n2585722]

I just set them both up as heaters instead for now.

THe apex programming was neat, if you buy in to the idea that heater cycling is why they go bad (I do), then running one for 12 hrs, the other for the other 12 hrs, helps with that a lot.

But I need logic in the Hyrdos that knows if a heater has failed and make the other one in use 24hrs a day then.

I have two very oversized 800w titanium heaters w/o thermostats, they are plugged in to helios controllers.

This is the only "negative" I have w/the hydros.

Fact is I love the idea of a collective and redundancy, I feel its a far better made product, I already had a wave engine v2 (did not know it was a controller, so cable on the way)... and I'm adding an XD for 3 drive ports to power the 4 hydros dosers I bought.

I recently went to reef moonshinders and have tons to dose. So I Have 8 dosing heads now.

I have mine plug into my XP8 outlets but 6.7 amps per heater would be a lot for an XP8 since the total amps for the controller is 14 amps but most home AC outlets have a 15 amp maximum per string of outlets. The XP8 does have power monitoring but it will only send an alert so if for some reason one of my heaters were to cause a wattage out of range on the outlet when it is on it will send an alert. You can also set a minimum on time and minimum off time on the heater outputs to keep them from cycling on and off too quickly. I also set an maximum on time of a few hours but do have run past maximum on time set to off so it will send an alert but not turn off the output. If it helps here is a couple of screenshots on one of my heater outputs. I only have 50 watt heaters but my tank is only 42 gallons. I also use the depends on set to the return pump so if it goes off it will turn off the heater output. I have the dependency mode set to off if off. The power monitoring will not work using the heater controllers though.