Eheim 2180 filter with heaters and Seneye probe

[shakadog]

hi all,

I am using two eheim 2180 cannisters as both extra filtration on my sump but also as the heaters for the whole tank setup.

These filters have a 500 watt heater built in and a digital temperature gauge that shows their temp and allows you to set it.

Does anyone know how accurate these temp,gauges are? Reason for the question is i recently added a Seneye device to the tank and it is reading 1.5 degrees lower than the Ehiems in the same water. I then bought a digital thermometer and tested the water with it and it is reading about .1 to .2 away from the Seneye.

Only thing I can think of is that the water in the cannisters itself is slightly warmer than the water in the tank due to being in the cannister itself. Both the eheim cannisters are reading within .1 of each other so it's not that one is out of whack.

Obviously for discus you want a certain water temperature in the tank itself and currently it seems that is out by a factor of 1.5 degrees.

My simple solution is to just turn the cannisters up 1.5 degrees above what I actually want the temp to be and then it should be at the right temp in the tank.

Anyone else got any suggestions as I can't find if you can adjust the eheim settings to match.

Thanks for any assistance or advice.

[Nathan]

best way to test water temp is with the basic glass thermometer, they are always accurate and dont get issues of leaking/faults like digital ones.

Just check what your water temp is and set it accordingly. Dont worry to much about what the heater is set on just gauge it by the water temp. One of my tanks is set to 28 and the water is only 23, another is 20 and its 26. You get my point :)

[shakadog]

Thanks Nathan,

Yes I get the point exactly and it is doing my head in lol. I am trying to build a display tank with discus and plants and know if it's too hot i kill the plants and too cold the discus suffer.

Currently I have five digital thermometers and 1 glass one.

Digital 1 27.8 in tank
Digital 2 28 a probe usually used in a kitchen
Digital 3 Seneye 26.5
Digital 4 eheim 29.5
Digital 5 eheim 29.5
Glass thermometer 29 and also the cheapest of the lot

I'm aiming for about 28.5 but which bloody thermometer do I trust lol

If I hadn't bought the Seneye I would of just kept going off the Ehiems which have worked for me for a long time very well.

[jimstreet]

I'm aiming for about 28.5 but which bloody thermometer do I trust lol.

The glass one :)

[Ghoti]

Just remember the eheims are measuring the temperature in the canister. You will get some heat loss from the hose(s) travelling to the tank, as well as losses from the tank itself. A 1.5deg loss between the cannister and the tank seems reasonable to me.

Cheers,
Scott

[shakadog]

Thanks Scott,

Yes I came to a similar conclusion after a lot of testing with different thermometers, if it's the case would be nice if eheim mentioned that on their site so you could take into account when setting your temp etc.

[Jason]

I thought the Eheim had an external sensor that needed to be set into the tank. Have they changed the design with the Pro 3?

[shakadog]

Not sure about the pro 3 but the 2180 has not got an external temperature sensor

[Nathan]

its a difficult balance when doing planted discus tanks, the temp will only be a problem if the setup doesnt cater to the particular plants your using. I saw your post its the huge tank with the 5 kessil lights? They are amazing lights and your plants are relatively hardy so i dont think you will get to many problems, it will be a bit of trial an error.

I think the main thing to start with is keeping the discus happy, plants are much easier/cheaper to replace.

let us know your thoughts?

oh and yes just go with the glass thermometers, with any tank your going to get slight temp differences in different areas but more so with the monster you have. As long as the speration is no more then 2 degrees youll be fine

[shakadog]

Agreed, currently got the tank sitting high 27.7 to 28.2, thinking of upping the heaters by .5 to get the minimum to stay at 28 and normal to be closer to 28.5. Will probably move it up a small amount a week over the next few weeks starting in another 2 or 3 weeks after the plants settle in.

[shakadog]

Well i stuffed up the tank with a significant lack of heating when winter hit and the room the tank was in had no heating and got cold, ie same as outside temp pretty much so below 10 degrees a couple of times. This resulted in the tank temp dropping to way too low and a loss of a lot of fish. Of course this happened while i was away for ten days so couldn’t do anything about it.

Ive now gone the other extreme and have put heaps of heaters in the system, 6 300 watt Eheim currently plus the 2280 canister filter that has the 500 watt element in it.

The big challenge i now have is that all of the heaters seem to think the same temperature is quite different and getting them in alignment is impossible.

4 heaters in the sump and all set at up to 3 degrees different to try and ge them to come on and off at the same time lol.

So this morning i bought an electronic controller that can handle 2400 watts through it on either heating or cooling, so good for a chiller as well but I don’t run one at this time. Thinking of maybe adding one as i have a spare one.

So tonight will plug the two power boards into the back of the controller and drop its probe into the tank and set it up at 28 degrees as per a glass thermometer. Should be enlightening to see how accurate the electronic probe is.

But once the temp is set all 6, possibly 7 as i still have a spare heater, will now be controlled by the one device and no matter whether they are in the sump or the tank itself the heaters will all turn on and off together.

Hopefully this will stop the constant on of all the heaters, the Eheim canister will still be on its own but i plan to set it slightly lower than the constant temp i am aiming for so it will only need to kick in when i do a water change or the room is really cold during winter.

Good in theory now to see how it works in practice. Surely 1800 to 2100 watts of Eheim jaegers should give it a good crack .

[sayid]

Is it not cheaper to increase the room temperature ?

[shakadog]

Thanks for the response but no the room is a man cave or a garage so not visited all the time and thus too big to heat the whole room unless I filled it with tanks. Hmmm that would equal divorce.

The controller has been running for 24 hours now and the tank is so far staying very constant and the heaters seem to be working far less.

Instead of only a couple coming on and not having enough to make much difference and staying on for ages all 6 turn on for a few minutes raise the temp .5 degree or so nd then turn off for about an hour or more till it’s dropped the .5 the controller is set to switch on again.

The 2280 being set below the controller by a further .5 so far has meant it hasn’t turned on once in that I know of since putting the controller on except for when I did a 30% water change.

So currently pretty happy and tank holding at 28 degrees where before I couldn’t get it to 28 even with the heaters set at 29. Amazing how out of alignment 6 heaters can all be even when exactly the same make.

As long as i calibrate the one probe to the temp I want it doesn’t matter if it’s right or wrong as long as it stays constant .5 either side of its setting as far as I’m concerned.