Short sump heater

dlish89 · May 24, 2022

Hi all I want to update heaters before any issues occur. I am replacing neo therm. Heaters work great but want to also clean up my sump. you will see in the pic they are in the skimmer chamber. I want to make room there for my mini brs reactor and in the front chamber start a refugium. So that leaves a fairly good spot in the overflow section of the reefer 250 sump, but its only 11" tall. I am running an Apex but do not want to use it to control the heaters just as a failsafe backup. So here is what I am thinking 3 - 75w eheim old school glass or a couple titaniums controlled off a inkbird. I am open to other options as well. Thanks for your help. Again it a red sea 250 ... so 65 ish gallons and temp in the house never really drops below 65.

blaxsun · May 24, 2022

I would either look at some titanium heaters with an Inkbird or the Innovative Marine Helio system (whatever wattage you need for your system). I'm in the process of switching over to the latter but currently use an Inkbird.

If possible I would still try to find a way to have these in the skimmer chamber, as having them in the overflow chamber will probably see them needing more maintenance/cleaning.

Snoopy 67 · May 24, 2022

I feel inkbirds have a questionable track record & would go with a Ranco industrial controller.
Place heaters in another chamber than the skimmer section.

dlish89 · May 25, 2022

Snoopy any particular model Ranco you recommend? Thanks

Snoopy 67 · May 25, 2022

Ranco Electronic Temperature Control, Open/Close on Rise, SPDT ETC-111000-000 | Zoro

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This is what most use.

Lbrdsoxfan · May 25, 2022

I went the way of a preset cheapo heater. If you want to replace after a year its cheap, less chance of saltwater creep into the internals since there is no thermostat knob and they tend to be smaller dimensionally for a cramped sump. Also imho less chance to have a runaway heater.