Rick, how many heaters do you run off one controller in your fish room?
Thanks for the write up... I was just 2 weeks too early in buying mine
I'm happy with mine so far and I've bought several more.
Rick, how many heaters do you run off one controller in your fish room?
Larry Bugg
NADA - Vice President
Atlanta Area Aquarium Association
I am not sure what your asking for here Larry so I will try to answer as follows:
You can run multiple heaters off of one controller, but they are going to need to be in the same tank. I would not advise going above 800 watts of heating power on the controller (they are rated at 10 amps).
So, yes you can say have two 300 watt heaters attached to one controller.
You cannot however use one controller to monitor and controller heaters in two different tanks. No controller that I am aware of can do this, and if there is one it is just two controllers jammed into the same housing.
Another thing to mention, when using this controller you no longer need a thermometer, and some of those coral life POS cost 8 bucks by themselves.
Ex-President-North American Discus Association-NADA
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I am running three 300 watt heaters with my STC-1000 controller. I ran the output of the controller to the coil of a 15 amp 3 pole relay then the heaters off the relay. Rick suggested this controller to me a few years back and I have been running two of them since without a single problem yet.
My wife names my fish
Yup, with such a relay you can run quite a bit more power, can I ask how much the relay cost? In some cases it just may be cheaper to run two controllers on the same tank (think large 300 gallon and above).I ran the output of the controller to the coil of a 15 amp 3 pole relay then the heaters off the relay.
Ex-President-North American Discus Association-NADA
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I went ahead and order some of these to get rid of the dongle-After I install two (so I can connect two heaters if I choose) I will no longer need the dongle.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/281513383413...%3AMEBIDX%3AIT
These will be flush mounted to the back of the hood.
I also have ordered one of these to play with:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-Touch-Pa...item2c8d0a6023
While a simple on/off switch would be a much cheaper option, I like the ability to control the intensity of the light.
I have no need for a timer as I run all my tank lighting off of a few 12 foot power strips which are themselves controlled by digital timers
http://www.harborfreight.com/12-outl...rip-96737.html
I use this to time the power strip
Grasslin CP-924
http://www.advancedhydrorganics.net/..._product=11415
Ex-President-North American Discus Association-NADA
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This is what I am using but I get them from work for free.
http://www.automationdirect.com/adc/...s)/783-3C-120A
My wife names my fish
That would effectively boost your capacity to 1500 w (with a little headroom), about the same as two separate controllers would. I am guessing your running your heaters in a sump? I kinda like the idea of two controllers running two different heaters in the tank, with larger tanks (300 gallons+) you can get some temperature fluctuation (mitigated by flow to some extent) in the tank. Having two heaters at opposing ends would help to mitigate this.
It certainly is a viable option if you need that much heat. As my biggest tank is 90 gallons, I have no need for more than a 300 Watt heater in anyone tank, the controller should handle tanks up to 200 gallons with little issues.
-Rick
Ex-President-North American Discus Association-NADA
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You are quite the techy Rick. I am learning a lot from your posts and also noting down a lot from the links you have posted.
Click here to view my 75g Acrylic Tank w/ Bean Animal Overflow with 40g Sump Thread
Also, click here for my 25 group of discus grow out thread
http://i3.cpcache.com/product/162117...ht=75&width=75
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rick i asked you about this and couldnt quite get it. this post is the answer...
Discus dave.