Planning for the future..what will I want or need?

[KJoFan]

I'm trying to think ahead to what I might need/want for an upcoming expansion of a frag tank to my system. I plan to plumb it into my display so I'm wondering do I really need additional probes for the frag tank, or would the readings in the display be good enough since it's all one system?

I've currently got the P4 Ultimate with an additional power bar. This should be enough to control any equipment, mostly lighting, for the frag tank.

I suppose my biggest concern is temp control/monitoring with the additonal water volume. The tank is a 150g with 2x 300w heaters in the sump. The frag tank will likely be a 60g, so that much additional volume. Am I going to want to monitor temp in the frag tank or rely solely on the shared sump?

I have had a frag tank plumbed in before on a previous build but it wasn't as big of volume as this will be.

Anyone with experience of something similar?

 

[KJoFan]

Along the same line, I could pick up a relatively cheap, brand new Profilux 3.1 Premium set, but I'm not sure that's the best route.

 

[Muttley000]

I run 6 tanks into a common sump. I use an apex, but when I wondered the same thing I moved my temp probe around to different places and it measured virtually the same. You should be fine IMO

 

[Ditto]

@Vinny@GHLUSA and @Marco@GHLUSA I need to tag them for this one. I have done virtual probes where I take my sump and my tank and use the virtual probe to control equipment. Could this work but using the Sump Temp in two Virtual Probes?

 

[Vinny@GHLUSA Verified Sponsor]

I'm trying to think ahead to what I might need/want for an upcoming expansion of a frag tank to my system. I plan to plumb it into my display so I'm wondering do I really need additional probes for the frag tank, or would the readings in the display be good enough since it's all one system?

I've currently got the P4 Ultimate with an additional power bar. This should be enough to control any equipment, mostly lighting, for the frag tank.

I suppose my biggest concern is temp control/monitoring with the additonal water volume. The tank is a 150g with 2x 300w heaters in the sump. The frag tank will likely be a 60g, so that much additional volume. Am I going to want to monitor temp in the frag tank or rely solely on the shared sump?

I have had a frag tank plumbed in before on a previous build but it wasn't as big of volume as this will be.

Anyone with experience of something similar?

I would say that 1 temperature probe in the sump will suffice.
Since both tanks are sharing the same sump, the sump temperature will be an average of both tank temperatures. The 1 temperature sensor will capture this value and give you a baseline temperature with both tanks considered.

If you wanted to add a second temperature probe, that's an option too. We have an expansion card for that.

The virtual probe comes in handy for two scenarios:

• If you have 1 temperature sensor, but want to control 2 items with different temperature reaction points. The physical probe would have 1 control function and the virtual probe would have its own separate control function.
• If you have 2 temperature sensors and want to get an average of these two probes as a virtual probe.

However, that doesn't sound like something you're looking to do.