Eheim 2180 filter with heaters and Seneye probe

[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.