water heaters

[poel_19]

anyone ever had one that looks like its working (light on) but was not heating the water at all?? I had one do this last night, it was ten degrees colder than what it should have been, and had one fish get sick and another die. Got a new one thats pretty fancy but still anyone ever had a heater crap out but still "look" like its working??

[AndrewH]

I think that's the problem with glass heaters. They stop working all together and you don't know until the water temp is too low or too high, or you'd lost some fish.

I've been looking for some good heats that aren't glass and keep coming back to the "Complete Control Unit" type things. Basically, they control everything in the tank: heater, CO2, pH, etc. for about $250. Might be worth in on a larger tank, maybe not so much on a smaller.

[poel_19]

what would one of those look like my good man?? 250 bones not bad considering co2 units themselves are around that!

[AndrewH]

I'm actually looking that up right now.

From my understanding it's a pH/CO2 controller and some have an added hearter control. The one on Drs Smith and Fosters is $379 and includes everything but the CO2 bottle.
Fully Automated System (http://www.drsfostersmith.com/Product/Prod_Display.cfm?pcatid=9933&N=2004+113779)

[poel_19]

wow.....i think i just had electronics envy........:leghump::leghump::leghump::tada:

[AndrewH]

Another one (http://www.aquaticeco.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/product.detail/iid/21976)
Here's another

[AndrewH]

Here are the King daddy of pH controllers (http://www.aquacave.com/searchresult.aspx?CategoryID=531)

[poel_19]

its pretty neato..but does it have a calculator?

[AndrewH]

It literally hooks directly into your computer and allows you to do long term tracking, etc. Thing is way more than I'd ever need.

I'm sure it does have a calculator.

[poel_19]

wow..i was joking...but i gues it really does have everything i would never need!!

[AndrewH]

LOL, yeah I thought all the features were salt related until I started reading up on them.

Turns out this smart SOB can compare the pH reading to the ORP reading and use that to control the CO2.

Most cheap or simple controllers only use the pH and don't have a ORP (ORP is basically measurement of the dissolved oxygen).

[poel_19]

this thing is smarter than me and must be destroyed!!

[AndrewH]

LOL, this thing is smarter than I thought...

Has 4 timers that can control lighting etc, but also can simulate the sunrise and sunset and a complete moon light control.

I can't find where it'll do taxes though, but I haven't read all the features yet ;).

[ElijahTurtle]

I'm just a simpleton. My CO2 runs off the same time as the lights. Lights on...CO2 on. Plants produce O2 & go nappy nap when lights off. Before that I had DIY CO2 with a gange valve that I had to open & close with my monkey paws.
If I'm ever "un-poor" I might look into a ph controler, but by then I'll have multiple tanks including a reef. I'll just have couple of massive bottles & run a spliter with mutiple regs so I can run each tank individually.

[poel_19]

how many bulbs and what types of bulbs would you need for that!! this thing may be the cheapest thing by the time your done with the enitre setup!! All the lighting, wave controlling, co2ing....too fancy for its own good! all said and done..this is just a fancy egg timer!! LOL

[ElijahTurtle]

this is just a fancy egg timer!! LOL
I'll take 3 sunny side up, with a side order of bacon, chewy not burnt to a crisp

[AndrewH]

Yeah, I was thinking of doing the CO2 off the same timer as the lights, but figured the pH might get away from me (new to the CO2) and didn't want to cause the fish any harm due to big pH swings.

With all this extra work, I have a little cash I can spend on the tank and thought a "all in one" controller would be nice to have.

One thing I'm wanting is to be able to put the probes "in-line" from my canister so nothing is in the tank (at least as little as possible). I've seen serval DIY builds for putting the probes in-line and might try that after I've had it up and running for a while.

[ElijahTurtle]

Yeah I've never had any pH issues with the timer, but if you've got the extra penny...might as well buy the whole hog.:spend:

[AndrewH]

Well the CO2 on the timer makes a lot of sense and has worked for a lot of people and maybe the penny can go into a new tank :please: :eek: