This normal heater cycling do I need larger heater

[Owen386]

Hey fellow reefers,

Never been able to monitor my heater so maybe just normal. But curious to see what others say. 50 gallon tank, environment ambient temp of 68-70

 

[dz6t]

Looks like the heater is working properly.
It actually works very well to keep temperature at 0.5F difference. What brand is it?

 

[afboundguy]

I have to agree with @dz6t 0.5 degree swing is pretty good and I wouldn't worry about anything.

My only tip is to make sure you have redundancy as heaters are typically the first thing to fail and a heater stuck on will kill everything WAAAAY faster than if it goes off and gets cold.

For example I have 2 heaters in my sump set to around 80 and they have their own internal control. They are plugged into an Inkbird controller that is set to around 79. The Inkbird is plugged into my controller that is set to 78. This way I have redundancy at 4 different stages (one on each heater, the Inkbird and then the controller)

 

[Owen386]

Looks like the heater is working properly.
It actually works very well to keep temperature at 0.5F difference. What brand is it?

Thanks. Good to hear from you long time! Hope life treating you well. It's just a regular old marineland... 150w

 

[Owen386]

I have to agree with @dz6t 0.5 degree swing is pretty good and I wouldn't worry about anything.

My only tip is to make sure you have redundancy as heaters are typically the first thing to fail and a heater stuck on will kill everything WAAAAY faster than if it goes off and gets cold.

For example I have 2 heaters in my sump set to around 80 and they have their own internal control. They are plugged into an Inkbird controller that is set to around 79. The Inkbird is plugged into my controller that is set to 78. This way I have redundancy at 4 different stages (one on each heater, the Inkbird and then the controller)

I will be adding another heater shortly for this reason will be putting it in display in case sump goes offline and will be set at lower temperature than my variance. Will also be hooked up to my hydros

Current heater is set up on my hydros.
So internal thermostat on heater and hydros would have to fail at same time. Also would receive notifications if temp is out of whack again relying on the hydros tho

 

[BiGGiePauls33]

Some suggest to replace you heaters every 2 years for peace of mind, I just ordered 2 new ones myself.

 

[Cpage101]

I have to agree with @dz6t 0.5 degree swing is pretty good and I wouldn't worry about anything.

My only tip is to make sure you have redundancy as heaters are typically the first thing to fail and a heater stuck on will kill everything WAAAAY faster than if it goes off and gets cold.

For example I have 2 heaters in my sump set to around 80 and they have their own internal control. They are plugged into an Inkbird controller that is set to around 79. The Inkbird is plugged into my controller that is set to 78. This way I have redundancy at 4 different stages (one on each heater, the Inkbird and then the controller)

me too

 

[afboundguy]

Some suggest to replace you heaters every 2 years for peace of mind, I just ordered 2 new ones myself.

I either do that or if my hand starts to get shocked when I put it in, which is definitely a good indicator!

 

[dz6t]

Thanks. Good to hear from you long time! Hope life treating you well. It's just a regular old marineland... 150w

Good to see you still around, I am as busy as usual growing tons of coral.
Assuming the heater is controlled by Hydro and its own thermostat as fail safe?
For Marineland heaters, I will say replace it soon due to its age.