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Anyone else having to add more heaters?

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by AJ, Feb 9, 2011.

  1. Feb 9, 2011 #1
    AJ

    AJ Inactive User

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    For the last year, I've gotten by with 500 watts of heaters in my tank.  It's always kept my minimum temp between 76.9 and 77.2.  Just yesterday, I noticed that the heaters were not keeping up anymore.  Temp got down to 76.3.  I checked to make sure that they were both still good (2 x 250w Ebo Jager) and they are.  I've thrown in another 250w Ebo Jager heater and set my Apex to control it so that it only comes on when the other two heaters are not able to keep up.
    So has anyone else found their heaters to be insufficient with this cold weather and had to add more?
    --AJ
     
  2. Feb 9, 2011 #2
    Guest

    Guest Guest

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    Not here I have a 90 gal and 1 heater seems to be doing good job
     
  3. Feb 9, 2011 #3
    Guest

    Guest Guest

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    Sounds like ur having a bad week with ur heaters and ur ph monitoring going bad
     
  4. Feb 10, 2011 #4
    AJ

    AJ Inactive User

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    Well, my two heaters didn't go bad, I checked them and they were both working. They were just not able to keep up due to the weather. I have probably 20 to 30 feet of plumbing that goes thru an unheated crawl space that I bet is the source of my issue. It's not open to the outside, but it's not heated. The other thing that could be impacting it is that I draw my air for my skimmer from outside. Injecting air into my skimmer that's that cold has to be cooling the water a little. The additional heater is providing the necessary heating. I was just wondering if others were running into the same thing.

    --AJ
     
  5. Feb 10, 2011 #5
    gravattj

    gravattj Inactive User

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    I do notice my heater has to work a longer when it gets this cold...
     
  6. Feb 10, 2011 #6
    PotRoast

    PotRoast Well-Known ReefKeeper

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    One thing I have noticed on this topic....

    My apex can monitor amps obviously. And I had a notion that one of my two heaters was not working as hard as the other one. It seemed every time I looked at them only one of them had the red light on. If I looked long enough the other one would turn on eventually....but not nearly as often as the other one.

    So I monitored my amps and rarely were both heaters on at the same time.

    So THEN I thought WTF is going on. I am still not sure but I think one of my heaters is fading away and one is doing good. I don't know.

     
  7. Feb 10, 2011 #7
    FishBrain New London

    FishBrain Expert Reefkeeper

    3,963
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    I only have one 300w titanium heater in my tank and it keeps up just fine with a total water volume of 150g.
     
  8. Feb 10, 2011 #8
    AJ

    AJ Inactive User

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    What do you have your thermostat on the heaters set to and are the heaters both on the same outlet (using a power splitter of sorts)? 
    I think the first thing that I would try would be to turn up the thermostat on the heater that doesn't come on as often.  After all, your Apex is going to tell them when to turn on and off...and the internal thermostats are frequently a little off.
    The way I configured mine is to have my two primary heaters on one outlet and the third supplementary heater on a second.  The primary heaters turn on at 77 degrees and heat until 77.2 and the supplementary heater turns on at 76.9 and heats to 77.1.  So far this has worked well.
    --AJ
     
  9. Feb 10, 2011 #9
    Bud West Des Moines, IA

    Bud Loves Bacon Website Team Board of Directors Leadership Team GIRS Member Vendor

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    I wish I had a problem related to 30 feet of plumbing...
     
  10. Feb 10, 2011 #10
    mcclandy

    mcclandy

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    I added another heater to my sump cause my water temps were running a bit low too. Seemed like one, of the two, heaters was running all of the time. But my sump is in the unfinished basement, where it is about 60-62F on really cold days. I have about 200 gallons, and probably 20 to 25' of non-insulated plumbing. I thought maybe it was just an ineffective heater or the extreme weather. Either way, i am also in the process of trying to figure out how to make the transition to my ranco heat controller without disrupting a fairly stable temperature.
     
  11. Feb 10, 2011 #11
    Gordo Dallas Center

    Gordo

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    I added another heater yesterday, it's this freakin cold Iowa winter.  I had noticed my heater was always on but  my temp was down 2 dagrees. But now I'm back to my normal temp with the extra heater.
     
  12. Feb 10, 2011 #12
    matt1971 Waterloo

    matt1971 Well-Known ReefKeeper

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    added one yesterday! fish room in basement 56 degrees. one of my tanks has a 10+ year old ebo- and it is doing fine all by itself.
     
  13. Feb 10, 2011 #13
    Andy The Reef Guy

    Andy The Reef Guy Inactive User

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    I had a slight dip in temp these past couple of (-8 degree) nights. I think that's probably reasonable to expect. I'm only using a 250watt heater in a 175 gallon system. Keeping about the same as yours 77.5 degrees on average over night. Dropped to 76.4 last couple of nights.
     

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