Looking at the temp graph on my Apex has me thinking about it. The heater turns on and off really often and I’m wondering if it’s going to wear out the switch on the thermostat prematurely. A smaller heater would take longer to get the tank to the high end of the range and reduce the on/off cycling. What do you think?
Is my heater too big?
- Thread starter joeyprice
- Start date
The heater thermostat is not being used when you have a controller. I would not switch to a smaller heater, you will see more temp fluctuation using a smaller than needed heater. The point of having a heater is to maintain a stable environment for fish and corals.
There are several ways of doing heater setups. With just an Inkbird you set the temp in the heater a degree or two above the setting on the Inkbird. Then if the Inkbird fails on for any reason the internal thermostat of the heater shuts it off before cooking the system.
@jcook54 has an Apex and does it a little different. I believe his heater may not have a built in controller/thermostat. He has the Apex set to turn off one degree above what he has an Inkbird set too and the Inkbird does the heavy lifting. The Apex will send an alert and cut off the output if the temp gets too high. You can also do this same thing in reverse where the Apex controls the temp and the Inkbird is the backup.
No matter how you skin the cat the object is to have at least one level of redundancy minimum.
With all that in mind I feel it is better to have two or more smaller heaters as another level of security. If one gets stuck on it's usually not going to be enough to cook your tank. If one just dies the other(s) will provide some heat and the tank won't cool down as fast giving you more time to notice a problem. Heaters are relatively cheap in the grand scheme of things and they don't last forever, sooner or later we're all going to experience a failure with them.
@jcook54 has an Apex and does it a little different. I believe his heater may not have a built in controller/thermostat. He has the Apex set to turn off one degree above what he has an Inkbird set too and the Inkbird does the heavy lifting. The Apex will send an alert and cut off the output if the temp gets too high. You can also do this same thing in reverse where the Apex controls the temp and the Inkbird is the backup.
No matter how you skin the cat the object is to have at least one level of redundancy minimum.
With all that in mind I feel it is better to have two or more smaller heaters as another level of security. If one gets stuck on it's usually not going to be enough to cook your tank. If one just dies the other(s) will provide some heat and the tank won't cool down as fast giving you more time to notice a problem. Heaters are relatively cheap in the grand scheme of things and they don't last forever, sooner or later we're all going to experience a failure with them.
That is exactly what I do Adam, you are correct. The tank is in my unheated basement. That means that, for most of the year, it's more powerful that the recommended wattage. I too see exactly what you're taking about, the heater kicks on/off pretty often. In my case, it will turn on, run for an hour, turn off and then tun back on again after another hour. So, the bottom point of the temp graph are separated by 2 hours. I haven't noticed any issues but I do have it controlled with an Inkbird. The Inkbird itself is plugged in to the Apex's EB8 and it will turn the whole thing off if it gets too warm. I don't worry about the "Swings" since it's really single degree over the course or 2 hours. On the standard Apex temp chart it looks really crazy until you look over at the Y axis and notice that it's really only a 1.25° swing.
Technically yes lots of cycling can wear out the relay faster. If you are using a controller like an apex just set the heater to a degree higher than the apex is set for and it simply will not ever use the heaters relay/controls.
You can go WAY down the rabbit hole of well if I put the heater in the sump and the probe in the tank it will lessen the cycles....BUT If you want piece of mind, use two heaters and buy a good brand.
Personally I use Finnex titanium heaters with inkbird controllers plugged into the apex. I have only had one finnex heater go bad on me and that was because it was powered on out of water for over an hour while I was cleaning stuff.
You can go WAY down the rabbit hole of well if I put the heater in the sump and the probe in the tank it will lessen the cycles....BUT If you want piece of mind, use two heaters and buy a good brand.
Personally I use Finnex titanium heaters with inkbird controllers plugged into the apex. I have only had one finnex heater go bad on me and that was because it was powered on out of water for over an hour while I was cleaning stuff.
With the newer Neptune EB832 all of the relays are mechanical, which are rated in the hundreds of thousands of cycles. Where on the EB8 only outlets 4 & 8 are mechanical and outlets 1-3 & 5-7 are Triac's that are rated at a billion cycles. Triac relays need to shed a little heat and the plastic case of the EB832 insulates them causing failures, where the metal housing of the EB8 acts like a heat sink allowing the heat to be radiated out. @gainesvillereef taught me that. He would know the exact number of cycles the relays Neptune uses are rated for.
I run several EB8's on my systems (many bought used) and all of the heavily cycling components, like heaters & solenoids, get connected to the triac outlets. The items that only cycle a few times a day or are very low amperage go on the EB832 or outlets 4 & 8 on the EB8. I'll take a billion of cycles over the thermostat in a heater any day. But I keep my tanks within a half degree, on at 77.5° off at 78°.
If all I had was an EB832 I would absolutely have an Inkbird or Ranco controlling the heater, then Apex and finally the thermostat on the heater (if it has one) set as the last backup.
I run several EB8's on my systems (many bought used) and all of the heavily cycling components, like heaters & solenoids, get connected to the triac outlets. The items that only cycle a few times a day or are very low amperage go on the EB832 or outlets 4 & 8 on the EB8. I'll take a billion of cycles over the thermostat in a heater any day. But I keep my tanks within a half degree, on at 77.5° off at 78°.
If all I had was an EB832 I would absolutely have an Inkbird or Ranco controlling the heater, then Apex and finally the thermostat on the heater (if it has one) set as the last backup.
