Thanks Cecil. Many options out there in the aquarium world.
Been reading aquarium sites about heater malfunctions. Many have happened.
One guy had a 1000 watt heater. He went to bed and everything was fine. Woke up the next morning, and his tank was 120 degrees. Needless to say, the fish were all dead. Controller fried and got stuck on.
I have three built in methods of dealing with this scenario. Wont bore you with the details.
A number of people recommend to use multiple smaller heaters, so if one croaks, the others are there for backup.
Another recommendation I have seen several times is to replace your heaters every 2-3 years. As they get older, they are more prone to malfunction. (all about cycle life)
I'm looking at one of my 10 amp solid state relays for firing the heating element and wondering how they crammed that into one of those aquarium controllers?
The main advantages of using industrial elements are, they will last a bunch longer, and in 15 years, I can easily get a drop in replacement. Bad thing is that a reasonably priced 1000 watt element could set ya back 300-400 bucks.
