# Should I use a heater controller



## KempDesign (Feb 27, 2014)

Hey guys, as my 210 Malawi tank comes together I bought 2 Ehiem 250 watt heaters. They are too long to put in the sump so I am going to hide them in the overflows. I have never used a heater controller before but from what I understand, it can be cheap insurance for expensive fish stocks. Do you use them? If so what do you recommend? Thanks!


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## sumthinfishy (Jan 26, 2013)

sorry for my ignorance on the subject, but what is a heater controler?


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## rgr4475 (Mar 19, 2008)

sumthinfishy said:


> sorry for my ignorance on the subject, but what is a heater controler?


http://www.jehmco.com/html/temperature_controller.html

_Temperature controllers are used in applications where multiple heaters are needed, i.e. larger aquariums or central systems with a common sump. The principle of operation is to use conventional aquarium heaters and bypass their integral thermostats by setting them to their highest settings, then plugging these into a separate controller.230,120 and 24 Voltages available_


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## KempDesign (Feb 27, 2014)

A heater controller is a seperate electronic box with a temperature probe that goes into the tank or sump. You then plug your water heater or heaters into the control box and set a max temp. If the probe detects a temperature over the max temp set on the box, it will kill power to the heaters until the temp returns to a level below the max temp. This keeps your heater from malfunctioning and cooking your fish. One of our site sponsors sells controllers from Finnex fpr about $36. Seems like cheap insurance.


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## sparky4056 (Sep 1, 2014)

I would always use a temp controller because like you said it is cheap insurance. I set my controller at 78 and my heater at 80. A good controller has a better switching mechanism than any aquarium heater. Doing it like this allows the controller to do the switching on and off so there is less of a chance of the heaters mechanism failing, it also ensures that if the controller fails, the tank will not rise any higher than 80.

If you put the heater in the overflow make sure you put the controller probe in the overflow too. There is a member here on the rate the tank above you page who put his heater in the overflow and the probe outside of it. The heater being in a more confined spot than the probe got so hot that it cracked his tank and melted the overflow.

As far as which controller, I use the ranco etc 11000. Its for commercial HVAC, so it is very accurate and dependable.


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## KempDesign (Feb 27, 2014)

Wow, I can't believe it cracked the tank. Maybe I'll just put them in the sump on a diagonal. I'll check out the ranco. Anyone else use a heater controller? If so what brand?


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## sumthinfishy (Jan 26, 2013)

ok. thanx. i'm gonna have to get some of those


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## bwestgsx06 (Sep 21, 2011)

sparky4056 said:


> I would always use a temp controller because like you said it is cheap insurance. I set my controller at 78 and my heater at 80. A good controller has a better switching mechanism than any aquarium heater. Doing it like this allows the controller to do the switching on and off so there is less of a chance of the heaters mechanism failing, it also ensures that if the controller fails, the tank will not rise any higher than 80.
> 
> If you put the heater in the overflow make sure you put the controller probe in the overflow too. There is a member here on the rate the tank above you page who put his heater in the overflow and the probe outside of it. The heater being in a more confined spot than the probe got so hot that it cracked his tank and melted the overflow.
> 
> As far as which controller, I use the ranco etc 11000. Its for commercial HVAC, so it is very accurate and dependable.


does ranco make one that already has the plugs installed?


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## B.Roberson (Nov 6, 2011)

Hey can you use one of these controllers on an inline heater. My 90 i will be setting back up has an inline heater on one of my caniters, it works great and keeps stuff out of the tank.


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## sumthinfishy (Jan 26, 2013)

bwestgsx06 said:


> sparky4056 said:
> 
> 
> > I would always use a temp controller because like you said it is cheap insurance. I set my controller at 78 and my heater at 80. A good controller has a better switching mechanism than any aquarium heater. Doing it like this allows the controller to do the switching on and off so there is less of a chance of the heaters mechanism failing, it also ensures that if the controller fails, the tank will not rise any higher than 80.
> ...


i dont see how thats possible unless the heater was not fully submerged in the water. there is no way that a heater submerged in water (especially water that is flowing as in an overflow) could get hot enough to crack the glass and melt the overflow


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## Loume (Dec 27, 2014)

The GFCI circuit on his return pump shut down for some reason, whereas the heater controller plugged into a different circuit did not. The probe was in a large tank, the heater was in the small 3g overflow box, resulting in disaster.

http://my210g.simdif.com/past-disaster.html


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## sumthinfishy (Jan 26, 2013)

okay that makes sense because that means that the overflow drained leaving the heater sitting in the empty overflow outside of the water


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## sparky4056 (Sep 1, 2014)

bwestgsx06 - You can get ones with the plugs already installed, they are just more expensive. Installing the plugs only takes a few minutes. There are youtube videos on how to do it.

b. Roberson - I use it on a hydor inline. The only issue it that the probe they come with is only rated as water resistant not waterproof. Some say it works just fine submerged, but there are a couple of things you can do to waterproof it. You can add some silicone to where the wire meets the probe, or use pvc heatshrink around the probe. Another option, one I'm about to try, is plumbing a thermowell into the outflow (keeps the probe out of the water and less visible equipment in the tank)


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## Loume (Dec 27, 2014)

Yes, but it still got hot enough in the overflow, which still had water in it, to first melt the standpipe, which then caused the overflow to drain.


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## Ryan_R (Aug 20, 2014)

Set the Eheim's to a little more than the temp you want if you go with a controller. That way if there's a failure, the heaters will shut off at, for example, 85 degrees vs a billion.

I'm running an Eheim 250W in a Lifegard heater module on one 125g tank. Kinda digging the set up. LOVE not having multiple heaters in the tank, but I've lost the redundancy I had with two heaters. I'm thinking about using a heater controller, but it's working OK as is.

As to the question of do you *need* a heater controller for more than one heater, the answer is most assuredly *no*. I've been running multiple heaters in tanks for *years*, and never had a problem with temperature stability. Before using the external heater module on the one 125g, I wanted to get some preliminary data on temperature distribution throughout the tank, so I bought a few digital thermometers. On both 125g tanks, with independent Eheim-Jager heaters (one tank has two 150W's, one tank had a 200W and a 150W ), the temp was rock solid within 0.1 to 0.2 deg's Fahrenheit in multiple places. Good circulation is more important than a single thermostat.

-Ryan


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