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This is my first "winter" and was wondering if most peoples tanks temperatures drop a bit.
I have 2 150 w heaters in my 90 gallong tank and thought that would be enough. Last few weeks my tank has been running from 76.5 to 77.5, vs 77.5 to 78.5 for most of its life. Is it just a winter effect? Is it a big deal? Do I need another larger heater? Its all controlled on Apex.
I’m running at 76.5 on mine right now with no ill effects aside from a little slower coral growth. I typically run ideally at 80 but ran as high as 84 last summer. 500 constant watts of heater on a 120 gallon system is $$$. I won’t even mention running a large chiller...
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Ok...is that where you normally run it? Or is it just because it's colder now?
Because it’s colder now. Like I said, if I ran the heaters at 78-80, they would stay on pretty much continuously due to the ambient temp in the room being in the 60’s or lower at night. I’ll probably build some sort of insulating cover for the tank by the end of the year so this won’t as much of an issue. As far as temperature changes go, as long as they’re gradual and not too extreme, our tanks can thrive in a wide variety of temps that we wouldn’t expect. I’ve seen great tanks run from 74 - 84 degrees. Anything from 76-82 is pretty safe so I personally wouldn’t fret a 1 degree drop in temp within that range.
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I would't stress on it being around those numbers but I'd try to not let it get too much lower than 74-75°
As far as the heaters go you might wanna get a larger one like 300w and swap out one of the 150's...I look at heating/cooling like this analogy: think about putting a small hang in-window air-conditioner on a little 10x10 room...it'll cool it quickly and only click on every now and again...now put that same unit on a warehouse and it's like dropping an ice cube into a barrel- it'll be running all day and barely make a difference ...Basically if you have a larger heater it'll only come on briefly and heat the water QUICK, but if you have smaller heaters they are gonna need to run much longer and might still not be enough to heat to where you want the tank at
I agree with Dan.
I would buy a larger heater, and swap it out with one of your smaller ones. Even though it’s a higher wattage, it won’t turn on as often, and when it does, it will be on for shorter periods of time. My heaters and chiller are rated for three times as much water volume I have.
That’s a theory I’ve been meaning to test for the last few months but have been to busy/lazy. I have an extra eheim 300 watt not in use and have been considering pulling my 150 in favor of it. Well, I know what I’ll be doing for the next 15 minutes... Thanks guys, lol.
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Behold! The ugliest temporary experimental heater no-room-in-sump installation!
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...eb05c541e3.jpg
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Looks like ill be in the market for a 300 w heater...probably just in time for the temperature to heat up !
Check out the finnex titanium heaters. IMO, they are the best.
getting into the weeds on this one, but which, the 150 or 300, would you have running all the time? Thinking about the most efficient way to program this in apex. Right now both kick on at 77.6 and kick off at 78.3, with fan kicking on at 78.5.
I have the 300 running instead of the 150. I also have another 150 which acts as a back up just in case the 300 doesn’t turn on or have enough power to keep up. Everything is on a reefkeeper 2 for safety’s sake.
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+1 on those being great heaters! ...there are others that work well over time as well but I've broken enough glass heaters to get fed up with those thingsQuote:
Originally Posted by Livinlocal
So you shouldn't really want anything running "all the time" except the return lol ...so here's how my setup is: heater outlet #1 on at 77.5° and off at 78.2°...backup heater outlet on @77.0° and off @ 77.5° ...so if for some reason the first doesn't kick on, the failsafe is there to catch it. Also I'd run the larger of the two heaters first and have the backup be smaller (if one is less wattage at all *hint hint)...or do like I do with 500w as the first and an 800w as secondary (I know it's overkill on my setup lol)Quote:
Originally Posted by HHN
Also I'd suggest giving more of a buffer before the fan kicks on i.e. Maybe not till 79/80°
Funny, I had not given it too much thought, but is this pretty much how everyone's temp graph looks like? or is it more stable?
Attachment 41268
My heater kicks in at 76 and off at 77. It will make for a more stable graph. Then goes up a tad when my 1600w of halides kick on. Your reef can handle drops and increases no problem as long as they are fast spikes or drops. I’ve run mine as low as 74 and as high as 85 will no I’ll effects. Obviously those are the extremes but a couple cold or hot weeks can do that.
Also yes, run a larger heater but not terribly large as to nuke the system is something goes wrong. ALWAYS use a controller as well.