PSA: Time to check heaters again!
- Thread starter cr500_af
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I think the Ebo Jagers are fine... I've searched (and asked) a lot about the same thing (heater quality) and it seems that none can be trusted long-term not to either stick off (bad), on (worse) or leak voltage.
From what I've learned, the ones to watch out for are Stealth and Hydor Theo heaters (and I have had both do bad things). IMO, the best thing you can possibly do is to run the heater off either a reef controller, or at least a temp controller like a Ranco. That won't protect against a dead heater nor voltage leaking, but at least you have another barrier in place against a stuck-on heater making fish and coral soup out of your tank.
Also, if your tank needs, say, 150w of heat it is advisable to use two 75w heaters rather than one 150w. That way, any failure won't cause losses as quickly as it would if it were the only heater in the system.
Exactly what I have (minus the ground probe). Good setup, though I am not a fan of ground probes. A search about them will turn up some food for thought about them... particularly, the school of thought that "stray voltage" is less harmful to fish without a probe than it is with a probe.
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Love that my chiller has a port in the back to plug a heating element into. Picked up a nice 300w titanium element (no built in controller to fail) at the swap meeting, and finally saw it kick on this weekend.
v8fla, what size tank do you run two 50w heaters on? For something that small, it might be better use of the RKL's channel to just run one larger heater.
v8fla, what size tank do you run two 50w heaters on? For something that small, it might be better use of the RKL's channel to just run one larger heater.
Another thing that is perhaps a good practice (but I haven't heard it suggested) is to proactively replace heaters every few years.
I roadraced motorcycles for 7 years, and whether the helmet touched the ground or not, I got a new one every other year. It just makes sense... Parts fail with age. Beat the MTBF.
Now the question is, how often is often enough?!? Every 2 years? 3 years?? I have one heater that's a year old and another that is 2 yrs old. I do have the fall-back protection of the controller managing them, but they could still fail OFF, or leak voltage at some point...
I roadraced motorcycles for 7 years, and whether the helmet touched the ground or not, I got a new one every other year. It just makes sense... Parts fail with age. Beat the MTBF.
Now the question is, how often is often enough?!? Every 2 years? 3 years?? I have one heater that's a year old and another that is 2 yrs old. I do have the fall-back protection of the controller managing them, but they could still fail OFF, or leak voltage at some point...
