Weird temp readings

anarchy

anarchy

Active member
ultimatemj said:
Looks like your lights heat the tanks during the day...and the heaters are struggling to do enough at night. Could be too much flow rate and/or not enough wattage

Have you measured temp any other way?

Maybe move the temp sensor to a DT for a day?

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Thats weird considering a 250 and 300 kept the tank perfect day and noght for almost 2 years. Im going to try new placement and see what happens. Thats hard though since they are 19" long. Cant fit where the old ones were

Sent from my SM-N920P using Tapatalk
 
ultimatemj

ultimatemj

Active member
Check the outlets....plug a light or something into it and see if it lights up when the temp goes below 78.

For that matter, have you looked to see if the light on the heater comes on?

If it comes down to the heaters (since you have an Apex) I'd recommend Finnex Ti heaters....no built in thermo, but built solid and reliable.
 
anarchy

anarchy

Active member
ultimatemj said:
Check the outlets....plug a light or something into it and see if it lights up when the temp goes below 78.

For that matter, have you looked to see if the light on the heater comes on?

If it comes down to the heaters (since you have an Apex) I'd recommend Finnex Ti heaters....no built in thermo, but built solid and reliable.
Click to expand...
The light on the heater does come on but not consistently. Sometimes i have to tap the heater then it comes on. May have to plug it into a regular outlet and see what happens. The heaters are only 2 weeks old so they should be fine. Just figured since my old heaters were doing the same thing then it may be another issue

Sent from my SM-N920P using Tapatalk
 
anarchy

anarchy

Active member
Temp started to drop lastnight so i put both heaters in the on position and temp slowly rose to 78. Looks like ill have to adjust the internal heater control for 78.5 and program them to be on from 19:30 to 7:30. That should keep temp stable in theory

Sent from my SM-N920P using Tapatalk
 
ultimatemj

ultimatemj

Active member
Wait, are the heaters plugged into a controlled outlet eb8?

If so, set the heaters themselves to full ON and let the APEX do the controlling.

If the heaters built in thermoset is not set multiple degrees higher than the APEX program they may be struggling to work right... because they are powered off...then on and the thermostat isn't always 'instant'...and maybe even reset somehow, causing irregular function.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
anarchy

anarchy

Active member
ultimatemj said:
Wait, are the heaters plugged into a controlled outlet eb8?

If so, set the heaters themselves to full ON and let the APEX do the controlling.

If the heaters built in thermoset is not set multiple degrees higher than the APEX program they may be struggling to work right... because they are powered off...then on and the thermostat isn't always 'instant'...and maybe even reset somehow, causing irregular function.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
The heaters themselves were set at 81 until yesterday i set them to 79 incase i needed to manually switch it on

If i turn the heaters thermo all the way up then it will work properly?

Also if they are in the on position will they go off the heater thermo or apex program

Sent from my SM-N920P using Tapatalk
 
anarchy

anarchy

Active member
ultimatemj said:
If you manually switch them on, doesn't that put the APEX in control of them? That's what you want...
Click to expand...
I thought thats why theres an auto option... ive always ran everything in auto. I thought the on forced them on and overrides the program and off overrides the program and shuts it off

Sent from my SM-N920P using Tapatalk
 
ultimatemj

ultimatemj

Active member
Sorry, yes...APEX set to AUTO, and heaters themselves set ON (or a high temp ~85).

If the heaters can be "set to on", use the APEX on AUTO to be the thermostat. If both thermostats are used then any calibration differences will cause irregular function. Take the eheim jager thermostats "out of the circuit"
 
IHaveCrabs

IHaveCrabs

Premium member
ultimatemj said:
Sorry, yes...APEX set to AUTO, and heaters themselves set ON (or a high temp ~85).

If the heaters can be "set to on", use the APEX on AUTO to be the thermostat. If both thermostats are used then any calibration differences will cause irregular function. Take the eheim jager thermostats "out of the circuit"
Click to expand...
I agree with this but one consideration to make is to consider is eventually the switching in the Apex EB's eventually stops working (after some obscene number of on/off switches). Obviously if it fails on and your heater is set to 85, that's not great for the reef. I have two 300w heaters in two separate controlled switches set at 80 (mine doesn't have an ON option). I have the Apex program control it. One turns on at 77.8-78 and the other at 77.5-78 to run it back up to 78. My secondary rarely turns on.

If my Apex sticks on (takes a long time to wear them out but have heard of it happening), then my heaters will only go to 80 (internal setting in the heater itself). Part of my maintenance is checking my heaters with a standard plug every 6 months of so to make sure the internal sensor still works.

View attachment 15965

Oh, and I have heard of people knocking their Apex temp probe out of their sump/tank or just knocked it enough to hover just over the waterline... :dead:
 
Last edited:
ultimatemj

ultimatemj

Active member
I'm doing the same APEX 2 heater approach. The secondRy is for when the primary heater fails(no heat) and because my basement sump needs more wattage when the temp outside is below 10deg.

Can you point to any examples eb8 switches failing in the on position?

I'm using finnex to heaters that do my have built in thermostats...so I may need to add an alarm for 81deg to txt me!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
T

#theMatrix

Active member
Thats how i set mines after talking to jon [MENTION=1483]IHaveCrabs[/MENTION] about his set up. He guided me to set the heaters to a safe temp like 80 and let the controller determine when to come on and off more accurate rather than the heaters thermostat. Also mentioned about the back up heater for the controlled one. After the 1st week of off temps i asked jon about accurate calibration. Jon suggested i use a mercury thermometer. So i did. And honestly my findings are mindblowing but i delt with them. With his suggestions and mikes [MENTION=1217]madjoe[/MENTION] guidence on where to place the probe and heaters its where is like it to be.

Hope its ok that i put you out there jon. As for the mercury thermometer...it was difficult to read to the degree as its in 2 points oer micro degree? Might be time to switch heaters. The reef ones that are set to 79/80 with less play are less than a foot in lenght.
 
Last edited:
anarchy

anarchy

Active member
ultimatemj said:
I'm doing the same APEX 2 heater approach. The secondRy is for when the primary heater fails(no heat) and because my basement sump needs more wattage when the temp outside is below 10deg.

Can you point to any examples eb8 switches failing in the on position?

I'm using finnex to heaters that do my have built in thermostats...so I may need to add an alarm for 81deg to txt me!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
You should set hi and low alarms anyway. Since when the temp probe fails it normally reads really low

Sent from my SM-N920P using Tapatalk
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top