my heater quick fix

[Anthony.Luciano]

ok guys this is my quick fix for my finnex 500w titanium heater. now i know some of your are gonna start with the oh thats unsafe nonsense. now please don't bother telling me i don't care. not to be rude but one day i forgot to fill my auto top off and the heaters got exposed to the air for a couple of hours. one of the glass ones even cracked. but all of the thermostats got fried so i kept having temperature problems such as them staying on to long and not turning on at all. the one glass one which is 200 watts the way it broke was that it never turned off which is what i want because its connected to my apex to shut it on and off. but that i really didnt care about because it barley raises my tank temp like 5 degrees. the one i needed was the 500w titanium one because thats the main heater in the tank and the first couple of days it was going crazy turning off and on but the apex protected it from heating to much. then when it settled it got uncalibrated and measured 76 degrees as 92 so anything above it would shut off and it got annoying because the apex controls the temperature according to the season and when it switched to be set at 76.1 the heater wouldn't go above that so what i did was i opened up the little control box on the power plug with the thermostat controller and cut off the wires for the thermometer in the heater. then i opened up the little black box which i heard clicking from which ment that was the relay, i cracked the top of it open to show the metal inside and then i bent the repay prong to always be touching the ON terminal. i then made sure there was no open wires and put it back together and now the apex controls the rest. im really happy i didnt have to spend another 40 bucks on another one of these because this process took about 10 minutes.

[seapug]

that's unsafe.

if you feel confident slicing open electrical appliances that are submerged in saltwater and futzing with the mechanics, then go for it.

Call me a paranoid money waster, but rather than risk my home and the lives of my wife and kids to save a few bucks, I'd probably play it safe and drop another $40 for a new heater AND hook up an ATO, but that's just me.

[Anthony.Luciano]

it was the part out of water like the little temperature know connected to the power wire. i have no problem with buying another one its just that... i dont know how to explain this. its just bypassing the thermometer which got burnt and is uncalibrated. so to relate it to like the real world say you have a light switch and a person standing there all day long turning it on when you walk into the room and off when you walk out. now you hit that guy in the head or something and he doesnt know what to do anymore so he just turns it on and off whenever he wants. now you cant get rid of him so you get someone else to force the light switch on while hes still going crazy and then you get an automatic light switch which is the apex. so in a way im 100% sure its safe. its not really messing with anything that can hurt someone because its just a failure in the thermometer so all i did was bend the relay to keep it on and let the apex turn it off. so i kind of think of it as in i know its safe why spend another 40 bucks just because it doesn't turn off when the temp gets to high when the apex does it for me. i had it set on 92 degrees anyway so the apex will do all the work so this is what bending the relay does. oh and fyi i have an ATO i just forgot to fill up the resivior for like a week so im gonna get a bigger one because the 5 gallon bucket goes to fast. i had a 20 gallon resivior but i needed to use the rubbermaid bin for something so ill get another one soon enough.

Originally Posted by seapug

that's unsafe.

if you feel confident slicing open electrical appliances that are submerged in saltwater and futzing with the mechanics, then go for it.

Call me a paranoid money waster, but rather than risk my home and the lives of my wife and kids to save a few bucks, I'd probably play it safe and drop another $40 for a new heater AND hook up an ATO, but that's just me.

[snorvich]

Get a ranco controller. Sleep better.

[Anthony.Luciano]

whats wrong with the apex?

Originally Posted by snorvich

Get a ranco controller. Sleep better.

[dougc]

Think failsafe. I use the seasonal variations on the Neptune too. The thermostats on my heaters are set a slightly above the highest summer temperature of the controller. If anything goes wrong with the controller or something gets stuck, the thermostat on the heater should cut out before the tank boils. You have bypassed that protection.

Spend the $40.

[snorvich]

Originally Posted by Anthony.Luciano

whats wrong with the apex?

Nothing. I use a Profilux but you are 15; got a grand to spend?

[snorvich]

Originally Posted by dougc

Think failsafe.

Exactly. Assume there is a primary failure.

[agreeive?fish]

run mag pumps in sump as return pumps..no need for a heater or a controler..problem solved

[Anthony.Luciano]

lol so is that a good thing or bad. i would imagine over the summer that would be bad but i was going to use a mag pump since i cant use an external pump now because the sump isn't drilled and its not removable without draining all of the tank water.

Originally Posted by agreeive?fish

run mag pumps in sump as return pumps..no need for a heater or a controler..problem solved

[Anthony.Luciano]

i wish i had a grand to spend.

Originally Posted by snorvich

Nothing. I use a Profilux but you are 15; got a grand to spend?

[agreeive?fish]

Originally Posted by Anthony.Luciano

lol so is that a good thing or bad. i would imagine over the summer that would be bad but i was going to use a mag pump since i cant use an external pump now because the sump isn't drilled and its not removable without draining all of the tank water.

to me its a good thing

i keep my house around 65*F 24/7/365 and my tanks all run in the mid 70"s year round (each tank is a little different because of tank size/sump size/ and pump size and lighting ie reefs vs fowlr)