Save Your Fish From Heater Failures With Just 2 Essential Items

Today we'll talk about two very helpful items to protect your aquarium from heater failures.
Grounding Probe: amzn.to/45ujPWv (paid link)
Temperature Controller: amzn.to/3VrWAIc (paid link)
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Music
"Envision" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
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[@robbzolson]

Glad you enjoyed the gift Bentley! Now use those 30+ year old heaters you find at garage sales with confidence! (And yes I still use a blown heater)

[@John-Ebsen]

Love an equipment video. That temperature controller video would be cool.

[@bnato8209]

Look at how gorgeous those tanks are in the background! 😊

[@BentleyPascoe]

Thank you!

[@Boja23]

My heater cooked my fish. White eyes and everything. I was heart broken and swore I'd rather have them cold then risk subjecting fish to that. The controller could in theory double fail, but wish I had that and a ground in hindsight. I've had power leaks in pumps in my ponds, that didn't kill my koi or goldfish, but I'm going to order one one of the grounds. I moved all the pumps out of the water, but I could see a crack in a casing transfer through the inlet/outlet water. Thanks @ Bentley

[@anodyne.7024]

My Inkbirds only work on one aquarium at a time. They have two outlets and can run two heaters, but they only have one sensor. Great topic.

[@4loveoffish]

I use a INKBIRD for safety too. Love the grounding cord idea.

[@willparsons32]

Hi Bentley... Yet another great video!! 2 BIG 👍🏻👍🏻's up, absolutely! If perhaps I could also add to "what people can do if..." During the spring and summer months... Shut off your heater or if you're worried about forgetting to turn it back on a few months later, people can simply turn down the dial on their heater by about 5 - 7 degrees. Unless a person likes to live in an igloo with the A/C going 24/7, the ambient room temperature (usually 70- 75°F) is safe and sufficient for the fish in a freshwater tank to live.

[@dusk1947]

Great video. The other tip (for larger systems) is to use two smaller heaters with the controller, instead of one big one. Say I need 300 Watts of heat (based on my water volume in the system). I divide that in half and buy 2x 150 Watt heaters. So if One fails, and the controller misses it or fails with it. A single 1/2 size heater is less likely to cook the tank. Adding an extra easy layer of redundancy to what is the most common lethal failure in an average tank. Or if you're totally crazy like me (and quite a few others on the Marine side of the hobby). You have the Inkbird running into a full aquarium controller (Apex or Hydros). Which puts yet another redundancy layer on the system. Totally not worth doing for this purpose. But, if you have an aquarium controller for it's other many benefits. It's a step worth taking. This very rare to see in freshwater. But a very common step taken on reef tanks.

[@josephgadway8950]

Wow thank you! My heater cooked my fish many years ago. I have kept goldfish since then. Thank you!

[@WytchyStitches]

Inkbird has been my go to brand for this type of product for years. I both the larger style you showed and the smaller ones for incubators, my well house etc. They are a huge tool in the homebrew industry... which has a number of things that translate to fish keeping.

[@dckyle]

Amazing insight! Thank you Bentley!

[@brianholdridge1860]

Thanks for the heads up. I am buying a couple of grounding probes. I have a couple of titanium heaters that are around 10 years old.

[@garthantash]

I love me an Inkbird. I have made my own inline heater using an Eheim Jager and an Inkbird.

[@Handygrrl]

I own an inkbird temp controller. One outlet plug is marked "heating", the other is marked "cooling". Therefore I doubt you can control two tanks for heating with only one of these. I believe the cooling outlet is intended for when you need to cool a tank or any refrigeration appliance. Manual says the cooling side is "active when controller is in cooling mode". Also, when I have forgotten to plug in a heater after a water change, the temp has gone from 78 to 64 overnight, not a few days, as you mention. I do not especially heat the rooms to 78 degrees. Perhaps in that case the tank temp is slower to fall. A quick check for price for the grounding probe is 16.99 at Walmart and $14.99 at Amazon, not $10. Thanks for making me aware of the probe.

[@nabokovfan87]

There's other brands too. I think the one referenced to me is from pymeter

[@BentleyPascoe]

There are other controllers that do that, I didn't say that very explicitly which is a mistake on my behalf.

[@j.t.cooper2963]

👍🏻😎 I just had a brand new 50 watt heater fail on the second day of use in my 10 gallon tank because the glass was cracked at the top where the glass meets the top of the heater where the temperature adjustment is and water slowly filled up the inside of the heater. I just happened to check the tank temperature and noticed my tank was at 81 degrees and not 78 where I normally keep it. I'm ordering temperature controllers and ground probes ASAP for all of my tanks. Luckily I didn't lose any fish or get electrocuted. I probably won't get so lucky next time.

[@dlaw1954]

I saw Inkbird controllers go on sale for $15 for the basic one on Amazon a few times last year. The basic one has an audible alarm (like a Watchdog) for both high and low temperatures.

[@SolomonJukes]

Great video I don't have any horror stories but have read enough about heater failures when researching what to buy. I will need to get some temperature controllers soon 🤞just hard when they are the same cost as the heater ends up being like a 120$ to 150$ cad for both and that's only for 50watt

[@vigilum]

great info, thank you good Sir!!!!!

[@mr.sardine]

Thanks for the great video Bentley. It reminded me that I have to buy some Inkbirds. Been procrastinating this for too long. At least I’ll get them for a few precious tanks. Wish they were a little cheaper. As far as heaters, I prefer the Fluval E these days, they have been my pref in the last 6 ish years. Before that, the default ones were Eheim jaegers. But Eheim today is not the same as the old QUALITY Eheim unfortunately.. so not sure how dependable the new aluminum jaegers are. But I should give them a chance maybe 😊

[@michaelhamann156]

This is my heater story. I lost half of my baby angels when the heater died (wouldn't turn on). Now I need to remember to put my hand on the glass or finger in the water every morning when I feed them.

[@jeffkane4391]

Excellent for a few tank 💯 there needs to be a better, more affordable option to handle fish rooms 😉😊

[@danieldolan8965]

About time someone mentions grounding probes.. I learned the hard way I lost a lot of great fish from an electrical short from a heater. Electricity is no fun especially with flat body fish like discus, angels etc. Great video. Buy the probe! Thanks Bentley

[@gregjonesonline]

careful, i believe some of those inkbirds have 2 outlets because 1 is for heat and one is for cooling aka 1 plugs into a heater and the other into a chiller

[@BentleyPascoe]

Yes, there are some non-inkbird designed to manage multiple items with multiple probes. I didn't state that very clearly which is my bad.

[@andicarson1339]

Yep, I have experienced the electrical tingle more than once. The 1st time I noticed it, I wasn't sure if I was imagining the tingle because it was so mild. I had it happen in, I think, 3 tanks. A friend had a heater explode. That's when I heard about the heater recall. I replaced all of the heaters. Honestly, I am gun-shy about even using heaters now. After moving, I have heaters in a couple tanks, but I don't have them plugged in, and the heater failuresis a big reason why. Granted, I have species that can get by without a heater. The heaters that I do have are not the glass ones (because of my friend's exploding one). That was like 20 some years ago, and it still influences me. I wasn't aware of the grounding probes. It's good that they are cheap. The problem that I would now have is having more outlet spots available. Time for a power strip upgrade. Thanks, Bentley.

[@BentleyPascoe]

You could in theory get a power strip just for grounding probes. Since it's 0 power draw, it would be easy to put that strip of grounds anywhere

[@andicarson1339]

@BentleyPascoe That would work great if I was using a racking setup like I had with my fishroom way back. My 5 tanks now are dotted around the house. I will need at least 2 new strips. Not a huge deal.

[@theskeptikaltruckr]

Hmmmm, I thought titanium heaters are grounded back through their own titanium cases thus doing the same thing as a separate titanium probe. 🤔 Not sure where I heard this so I guess it’s more of a question than a statement. Also, controllers are a great idea. I use a Hydros controller for heater, PH reading, CO2 control, ATO, and lights. I realize most people won’t be doing that with their tanks but a standalone heater controller should be on every tank at minimum.

[@4loveoffish]

A video on finding a good UPC to protect our filter and heater for 8-12 hours would be helpful . I’m in the process of trying to figure out what kind of UPC would work to power my oase thermo 350 and also my Aqueal hypermax 4500. I’m having a hard time understanding what kind of upc will give me enough power to lady 8-12 hours . What should I be looking for ?

[@BentleyPascoe]

You'll likely want to not plug in the heater because the heater is going to have significant power draw. In the case of using UPS or battery backup, what you'll need to look at is the power draw of the items you want to have connected to it and then do the math on the available storage capacity of the battery itself. Similar to how we would do this for a PC just we're using significantly less wattage so it will last hours as opposed to minutes.

[@williamleidy6713]

Wouldn't a power strip with a GFI keep the tank from becoming electrified by shutting everything down ?

[@BentleyPascoe]

GFI would prevent surges or shorts, but you can have exposed electrical without causing shorts.

[@chefsteve8381]

I've had one heater for 18 years and it's still going strong...

[@nisseneichorn9056]

bentleyPascoe Shouldn't heaters have one built in?

[@BentleyPascoe]

Nowhere near as durable or accurate

[@nisseneichorn9056]

​@@BentleyPascoeactually what I meant was shouldn't any company for example coop or fluval which is trying to improve their product When they design a heater should have the ability to simply add this 10 dollar titanium probe into their heater housing and use the grounding wire already built into the plug-in of the device

[@nabokovfan87]

Part 2 of the video. Go to his house and retire that heater please!

[@Wintersdark]

An alternative solution to the second case failure (either way) is using two half-sized heaters. I have thermometers in every tank that I check regularly. If the temp is wrong, high or low, I know something has happened to one or the other and can investigate. A half sized heater can't cook the fish, and will prevent temps from falling too low either. Ground cable is a good idea, but honestly? All heaters should have three prong outlets and be internally grounded to prevent that. For God's sake, DO NOT USE a failed heater and a grounding probe, that is not ok. That's still creating a pathway through the water where things can be electrocuted, and could injure or even kill someone or a fish in some circumstances.

[@robbzolson]

The grounding prong on the heater doesn't prevent your fish from getting electrocuted. Use a grounding probe