cant keep a set water temp!! too high or too low!

[Blakeup295]

ok so lately ive been having a lot of trubble with this my heater is either unplugged or on lowest lately if its plugged in on lowest ill check it and it will be 84 outta nowhere and if i leave it unplugged for to long it goes to 76 whats a good way to keep the temp at one level i bet my fish n coral are like WTH is going on! lol

is the only way is getting a chiller and heater to somehow work together i only have a heater can some1 please give in some light on this situation?

[Percula9]

Get a heater with an external controller. How old is your heater? What kind of lighting do you have?

[Blakeup295]

i have no clue how old my heater is and i have, 400W MH

[orgtizz]

Well the MH will raise your temp by itself! My question would be how many watts is your heater, and where is it located? Do you keep it in the sump or do you keep it in the tank. Also what temp are you attempting to maintain. I for one like to keep my tank at 79 degrees and I've found that everything seems to be happy.

[Blakeup295]

the heaters in my sump and idk how many watts it is and id love to have it like 79 or 80

[Palting]

I am pretty sure you have a bad heater.

[DJBonney]

I have to agree with Palting sounds like you need a new heater. I just bought a Marineland Stealth Pro and it has 2 LED'S in the dial when its heating its red and when its staying put its green. I was having some pretty big fluctuations before this heater and now its nice because I can just look and see whether its on or not.

[Blakeup295]

i think mine just stays on if its plugged in dosent turn itself off if water gets hot, and i loved my old heater but the bottom of the glass broke would it be safe to use it in sump when bottom is open?

[orgtizz]

You could potentially have two issues.

Your lights are raising the temp in your tank when they are on. To fix this try using a small fan to blow over you sump. You can use for you tank too if you don’t have a full canopy. But if you have the money and your tank is truly heating up, a chiller is the best way to go.



(or) You have a large heater in your sump, that is being “confused” by your sump. I say confused, because I had this issue before, and I had to turn the heater (same one I used in my DT) down drastically to maintain the same temp in my tank. To see if this is the case, I would suggest trying it out in your DT and see if you can find the right temp, or else pick up two new ones (it’s good to have a back up in case one fails). I would go with the heaters that have the temp dial on them. I’ve found them to be fairly close, which saves a lot of adjustments before you get it right. Changing the heater out with a more efficient model, could help, not to mention that you would then know if it was truly rated for you size of tank.

[orgtizz]

Originally Posted by Blakeup295

i think mine just stays on if its plugged in dosent turn itself off if water gets hot, and i loved my old heater but the bottom of the glass broke would it be safe to use it in sump when bottom is open?

NOOOOOOOOO

If you have a GFCI it would trip (if you don't, install one). If you don't you could die!

[Blakeup295]

Originally Posted by orgtizz

NOOOOOOOOO

If you have a GFCI it would trip (if you don't, install one). If you don't you could die!

what do you mean?

[orgtizz]

GFCI stands for ground fault circuit interrupter, which protects you from being electrocuted in the event of water coming into contact with your equipment. For example if you would accidentally spill water on your surge protector, the GFCI (granted you have one) would pick up the fault and immediately trip, killing the power at the outlet. Any socket near or potentially near water should be a GFCI.

In your case, if you plugged the heater in and it had an exposed live part the GFCI would “trip”. If you didn’t have a GFCI then you would have an electric pool, which would kill you if you put your hand in it (granted you panel box didn’t trip).

[Think_Reef]

GFCI's can save your life.

http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/pubs/99.html

[kev24k]

You could try to put your heater on a timer and just run it while your lights are off.

[Chi6488]

If you do not know or can't estimate the age of heater I would pitch it. They are cheap so get a replacement.

This is not a hobby to be cheap with if you want to enjoy the hobby.

[mr.maroonsalty]

I think you need to get a new heater ebu jager or visitherm. A setpoint/Ranco, or a reefkeepr type monitor controller is a nice way to control the power as well; if your in love with your heater a single stage can control the temp, or a 2-stage the temp and shut down the lights if a set max is reached. I like getting a quality heater, relying on it for temp control and backing it up with a single stage that cuts power to the heater and halides if a set temp is reached.

[sslak]

Originally Posted by Blakeup295

i think mine just stays on if its plugged in dosent turn itself off if water gets hot, and i loved my old heater but the bottom of the glass broke would it be safe to use it in sump when bottom is open?

And you knowingly continue to use it?

Required: Get a new heater.

Recommended: Get a temp controller for your heater that cuts power to it if your temp gets too high.

You are risking the lives of everything in your tank and all the $$$ invested on a heater that you don't even know how many watts it is? Where did you get it, a garage sale?

The way people will gamble thousands of dollars worth of livestock on a $20 heater makes me crazy.

[dcombs44]

+1

With the proven "quality" of hobby grade heaters, running a separate controller for the heater is a must. Set the thermostat on the heater a couple degrees higher than the preferred temperature of the system, and set the temp of the controller where you want the heater to turn on and off. Then you have 2 thermostats as a safety net making the chance of cooking your tank much less.

+1 on GFCI

+1 DO NOT use a broken heater.

+1 Replace current heater if you know the thermostat is not functioning properly.