[Marc_G]

My 90 gallon tank has two Eheim Jaeger heaters (I think a 200 and a 250 W). They are both set to around 78F, and they are both plugged into a power strip that is controlled by my APEX controller that shuts off power to them above 77.5F, and turns power back on at around 77.3. So, if the APEX fails on, the heater thermostats would shut off around 78 on their own.

The room temperature in the room ranges from 65 at lowest on cold nights to mid-upper 70s when the sun is streaming in during the day (tank gets essentially no direct sunlight). So, the tank normally ranges from low 77.x to just over 78 on the warmest, sunniest days when ambient room heat makes it drift just a bit over setpoint.

This week I haven't been micromanaging the tank due to Thanksgiving, but today I looked at the temp chart and looky here:

Suddenly, starting Tuesday night, the heaters haven't been able to keep temp at night when the house cools. This is odd; it's been a warm week (50s F outside daytime, freezing at night but not extreme cold) so the house hasn't even gotten as cold as usual. But the last few nights the heaters haven't been able to keep up with heat loss from the tank.

Clearly one of the heaters suddenly stopped coming on, so that tank gradually has been cooling at night. I'm going to have to poke at them (with controller "on" for power to them) and figure out which one isn't coming on.. Hmmm.

 

[puopg]

I feel like what may be happening is that the temp sensor on the heaters may be off, given how close to your target temp they are set at. Imagine if one heater is set to 78, but it's really drifted to say 76.75, so when you think it should be on (from the apex), it's not actually on.

Perhaps you can look at your power draw and see if anything changed around those instances to verify.

I think you can just recalibrate or increase the temp setting on ur heaters and see if any are actually not working. My Jager from like 10 years ago still works, though the temp setting I don't believe is accurate.

 

[Tiger15]

I use many Jaeger heaters and they typically last about 5 years. The thermostat is the first to fail before the heating element. Have you checked the thermostat and recalibrate? You may want to turn the thermostat up to fully utilize the controller.

I only use a 200W Eheim Jaeger for my 125g and 75g in a room where temp is set at 65F at night and 72F during the day. I am more concerned about over heating, so your dual 200W and 250W appear over capacity and unsafe if not because you use an independent temp controller.

 

[Marc_G]

I checked into it. It's been likely one of the heaters just drifted a bit in its setpoint. With Apex powering the strip (set to on) and the temp at about 77.3 per Apex readings, one of the heaters was on, one was off. I poked at the off one and it blinked on. It's actually the smaller on, a 125 W I bought originally for a water storage tank. Long story, but the tl/Dr is that this 125 was supposed to be in the tank temporarily subbing in for an old heater that really died. The replacement heater (200W) is in that storage tank for calibration and I never got around to swapping them.

Anyway, appears I need to swap heaters anyway, but the one heater didn't die, just apparently drifted a bit.

 

[ThreadFin]

Heaters suck! They are by far the most failure prone piece of equipment and unfortunately sometimes a deadly one.

After my last heater failure I said no more and went with a Helios. Stupid high price for a heater but it gives me piece of mind.

 

[Le duke]

Heaters suck! They are by far the most failure prone piece of equipment and unfortunately sometimes a deadly one.

After my last heater failure I said no more and went with a Helios. Stupid high price for a heater but it gives me piece of mind.

Did you size it according to the volume of the tank or the actual water volume?

For example, I’ll have a ~140 gallon tank, but only filled 90% and with substrates and hard scape, probably only 110 gallons of water.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Marc_G]

Today I did some tank maintenance and moved the suspect 125W heater downstairs to the holding tank, and moved the 200 W heater (that I was calibrating in the storage tank)there up to the main aquarium.

I should note that all heaters in question are only 6-8 months old.

Last night I didn't have any temp dips so I think my poking at the heater yesterday may have unstuck it or something. But now it is downstairs so if it fails on or off, it's just in a storage tank.

Continued monitoring ongoing.

 

[Marc_G]

Tank temp was perfectly stable overnight 🙂

 

[ddiomede]

Glad to hear this wasn't one of those disaster threads lol. Those threads give me bad flashbacks to coming back from a day in high school to a 38 gallon of fish soup.

I've been very tempted to update my Apex and use it on my tank. I have one of the older Apex units and it's just sitting around since I'm not running a reef tank right now. I may as well use it if I'm able to update it. I started thinking about setting up a reef tank and decided that if I do that, I'll just buy all new equipment for it and start new.

 

[ThreadFin]

Don't trust it! That's what heaters do! They make you feel comfortable, next they are sleeping on your couch for a week at a time, eating all your food. Then their girlfriend starts showing up. Get rid of it now!

 

[Marc_G]

Don't trust it! That's what heaters do! They make you feel comfortable, next the are sleeping on your couch for a week at a time, eating all your food. Then their girlfriend starts showing up. Get rid of it now!

Fortunately the heater in question is now keeping a water storage tank warm in the basement. If it fails, either off or on, it's harmless.

 

[ThreadFin]

Fortunately the heater in question is now keeping a water storage tank warm in the basement. If it fails, either off or on, it's harmless.

Good call. Never let it out of the basement.

 

[Marc_G]

Meanwhile, some days later, all heaters are working well.

 

[ThreadFin]

Meanwhile, some days later, all heaters are working well.

They are waiting for you to leave town!