Heaters and controllers

[Vanman]

I need to upgrade my heaters and controllers. I have an Ink Bird controller and a cheap heater in my only tank containing Discus. The water aging tanks have cheap heaters. I am thinking of upgrading to Ink Bird controllers and titanium heaters for any tank with Discus.
Are the Bulk Reef Supply titanium heaters any good?

I am getting some more Discus the end of this week. So I will need to upgrade fairly soon.

Has anybody had an Ink Bird controller fail "on" instead of "off"?

[fljones3]

I have used them and have no complaints. Solid in my experience.

[jwcarlson]

I have never had an Ink Bird fail and I have about 10 of them on tanks, water aging, egg incubators, etc. I am sure they can fail either direction.

I don't have any titanium heaters, but I have had good luck with Eheim Jager ones, but those have gotten more and more expensive. But I have a good number of Boeespat and Olrushy knock off heaters on Amazon and they have been good in my opinion. Other than the wattage ratings have been suspect. 300 watt and 500 watt are the same heater (measuring draw with Kasa device).

[Iminit]

Never used the bulk reef heaters but have other brands. Aqueon pro series. These just don’t hold the temp but work fine with the ink-bird controlling them. Also have finnex and hygger titanium’s. Some on ink-birds some not. So far ink-birds have been flawless. When a heater starts acting up I put it on high and on an inkbird. So buying more inkbirds now than heaters.

[jwcarlson]

I've found that most heater dials are wildly inaccurate and even if you get them dialed in, if you ever bump it up/down it will never be worth a darn after that. I wind them all up and plug them into inkbirds.

[Discus Fever]

Titanium heaters have their faults as well, just read some of the reviews on Bulk Reef Titanium heaters and you will see there isn't really a far superior heater that doesn't have it's own faults as of now.

[Charlyc11]

Inkbird sells their controllers direct on eBay and they are a lot less than anywhere else. Their WiFi controllers are the best.

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_ssn=inkbird&store_name=lerwayonline&_oac=1&_trksid=p4429486.m3561.l161211

[Iminit]

Ok I buy mine off Amazon:). https://www.amazon.com/Inkbird-Electronic-Temperature-Germination-Controlling/dp/B01486LZ50/ref=sr_1_4?crid=3VPOPZNRYQV2M&keywords=inkbird%2Btemperature%2Bcontroller&qid=1703612068&sprefix=Inkbird%2Caps%2C100&sr=8-4&th=1
There’s this one and another for $2 more that has a plastic covered probe.

[brewmaster15]

Anyone try Inkbird plus heaters...

138060

Seems to be made by the same company as the controllers but I could not find it on Inkbirds website.

Might just be a knock off but thought I would mention so members didnt get confused.

Al

[jwcarlson]

I have not, Al. But InkBird has become so trusted that dozens of similar names are being used on Amazon and elsewhere. It's a jungle. There's about 0% chance it has anything to do with InkBird. I have had decent luck with random Amazon heaters, though.

[fljones3]

Is that from Inkbird or a spinoff Inkbird plus?

[jwcarlson]

Amazon has become (even more) of a cesspool. Attached is a picture of the "InkbirdPlus" store. You'll notice that Amazon (IMO) knows exactly what it's doing by sandwiching the fake InkBird stuff in between actual InkBird products.

138065

[Iminit]

Got to say that smoking gun wood smoke infuser probably adds a nice flavor to the beef heart :). I understand fish go crazy for it. Also good for cat and dog foods :).

[Charlyc11]

The heaters got nothing to do with Inkbird but they look decent enough as the hundred other brands they sell on amazon. I use Hyggers and Aqueon Pros and mostly converting to Hyggers.

[mleibowi]

Agree happy to have upgraded to the brs heaters

[mytmouse]

I've had a 200W BRS Titanium heater for probably the past 3-4 months? So I can't speak to it's longevity, but it's been working well in my 40 breeder paired with my Inkbird controller. My only gripe are the holders. They show gunk and algae so bad, probably because they're a light grey color.

My next ones for my 110 setup are gonna be from Jehmco. They're cheaper and I heard good things about them. ;)

[Vanman]

Of the heaters that Jehmco sells, which do you prefer and why? When I upgrade mine I am considering buying from them.

[jawfish]

For me, I'm using the combination of Ink bird controllers with Jagger(Eheim) heaters.... This combination has been pretty reliable for me. We tend to forget that there was a time that we replaced heaters every year. I replace my heaters for precaution every 4-5 years. never had an eheim fail on me. I had 2 titanium heaters fail.

Cheers Fred