What is your heater setup? I think mine is inefficient.

[H2OPlayar]

For my display, I have my Apex as the primary controller for both heaters and the 2 inkbirds as the backup controllers (between the apex and the heaters). Because I have my 2 heaters on/off points staggered, heater1 is on most of the time and heater2 doesn’t turn on very often.

So I get the best of both worlds in my opinion- I get to use the power monitoring feature of the Apex to let me know if a heater fails (key), without having to have them switch on/off frequently.

Without the power monitoring feature (requires Apex to be the the primary) it would be hard to know right away that a heater has failed if you have redundancy.

I think BRS’s recommendation and logic is wrong in this case. BRS makes a fair number of sketchy recommendations and occasionally frank mistakes in their videos. They say opinion/preference like it’s a fact, and it has gotten worse as they have gained celebrity status. It worries me when I see people reference their opinions as if they are the final word. I appreciate their videos, especially the Investigates series, but I think of them more as influencers than scientists or experts.

Agree on a lot of these points, my big takeaway from the above video is all hardware breaks, and cheap hardware breaks faster. Given that, set up everything with redundancy and/or monitoring.

 

[Qwiv]

For my display, I have my Apex as the primary controller for both heaters and the 2 inkbirds as the backup controllers (between the apex and the heaters). Because I have my 2 heaters on/off points staggered, heater1 is on most of the time and heater2 doesn’t turn on very often.

So I get the best of both worlds in my opinion- I get to use the power monitoring feature of the Apex to let me know if a heater fails (key), without having to have them switch on/off frequently.

Without the power monitoring feature (requires Apex to be the the primary) it would be hard to know right away that a heater has failed if you have redundancy.

I think BRS’s recommendation and logic is wrong in this case. BRS makes a fair number of sketchy recommendations and occasionally frank mistakes in their videos. They say opinion/preference like it’s a fact, and it has gotten worse as they have gained celebrity status. It worries me when I see people reference their opinions as if they are the final word. I appreciate their videos, especially the Investigates series, but I think of them more as influencers than scientists or experts.

When you cycle the InkBird on/off with the Apex you are now cycling the relay on both pieces of equipment. That is like using your safety rope on a rock climb. If you used the InkBird as the primary control with a slight offest in temp setting and the Apex as backup, you will lessen the relay cycles on the apex and also not power cycle the InkBird controller increasing equipment life. You will still have power monitoring in case of a stuck on condition, but will loose the power monitoring when the Inkbirk cuts the heaters. To solve that, a 3rd heater on Apex set to turn on at a lower set point will get you back up to temp with an alarm on “On” to bring that notification back. You said your heaters were sized at 50%, so you will also get redundancy on your heating that way too, bringing you back to 100% heating on a failed off condition With notification.

basically what I did, but I have the InkBird with WiFi and redundant relays for 2 heaters and 2 temp probes, no cooling. The 2 temp probes should be more accurate then a single apex probe due to avg. can you avg 2 probes in Apex? It notifies if there is drift between the 2 probes (1 in sump and 1 in overflow - also acts as backup return pump monitor if Apex or return fails since DT water will cool below sump temp if pump is off) and when it looses power I get an alarm. Another redundant notification Of power failure and run away heater. My Inkbirk minimum between hi/lo is .5 degrees, but apex graphed the drift a little over 1 degree until I set one heater to cut off before the high set point which you can do with 2nd InkBird. My heaters are too big and spilling heat into tank after they are off. They are what I had and could get my hands on as they are hard to come by right now. I have downsizing them on the Todo list but there are 4 means to turn them off this way, so it isn’t a big deal. With early cut off of one heater I tightened the hi/lo variance .3 degrees and decreased the on/off cycle during the day. You can see in the Apex graph when the first heater cuts out as the slope of the line changes on every full heat cycle.

Food for thought as your setup is more than functional. Just increases equipment life with the same stuff and stability assuming the InkBird can hold temp as good as Apex. The Apex temp probe isn’t anything special so it should.

 

[Darkxerox]

Ranco two stage controllers. Little pricey, but I haven’t had one fail in years. I have around 4 or 5 running. Great for running heaters or fans/chillers.

ETC-211000-000 - Ranco ETC-211000-000 - Two Stage Temperature Control w/ Sensor (120/240V Input)

Ranco ETC-211000-000 - Two Stage Temperature Control w/ Sensor (120/240V Input) - <b>Digital Display</b><br><ul><li>Unlike many electronic controls, the ETC is simple to install and set up. One finger is all you need to program it. The standard digital display and keypad allow the user to adjust...

www.supplyhouse.com

Did you need to order any special wells or shrouds for the temp sensor on this? Wasn't sure if it's rated for extended saltwater use?

 

[RandyC]

Did you need to order any special wells or shrouds for the temp sensor on this? Wasn't sure if it's rated for extended saltwater use?

I’ve used it without a cover before without an issue, but in the recent ones, I put a long heat shrink wrap on it or put it in a plastic tube and sealed the ends with epoxy or silicon. At least covered 5-6” above the top of the black probe cover.