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Temp and water level alarms

jaypeecee said:
It is one heating and one cooling. It's a nice piece of kit
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I thought so @jaypeecee which is not really any different in terms of function to the Elitech STC-1550 so has 1x heating socket and 1x cooling socket.
They do differ however in how they sit on a shelf, *mount, look and maybe most importantly cost.
-Inkbird ITC-308 is £29.99 on Amazon UK (pre-wired)
-Elitech ATC-1550 is £19.99 on Amazon UK (pre-wired but can tinker inside)
I do know the Elitech STC-1550 has been that price on Amazon for more than 12 months, I've had 4 and all worked fine.

Elitech do make a version like the Inkbird ITC-308 but it's not through the normal supplier on Amazon at the moment so the Elitech STC-1000Pro you can pickup for around £30 delivered also.
I've no experience of this product so going purely by website written information alone.

HOWEVER - If you're wanting to control 2x heating relays (I've been referring to relays as channels) or in laymen's terms 2x sockets that are independently controlled, both on the heating side then it looks like the Inkbird ITC-306T is the one to choose from the Inkbird range according to their website information which is £31.99 on Amazon UK.
https://www.ink-bird.com/support-faqs-temperature-controller.html
I've no experience of this product either so going purely by website written information alone.

All prices correct as of today and Amazon used purely as a reference. 😉


Jack B said:
(can't siphon - we're on the 8th floor)
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I forgot to say earlier; do you not have a bath or shower you can reach easily with a length of hose? Providing the aquarium hose is higher than the other end it should work, you already use a python so possibly worth considering?
 
dino21 said:
You would think with the size of the whole home aquarium market someone would have marketed a basic controller that does a few other things , not just termperature, but say atu, external alarm light timer and even dosers for around the £99 mark.
Not everyone wants the complexity or can afford the real fancy ones like the Apex or has the ability to construct something like Zeus's PLC system.
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They're all 'luxuries' for want of a better word - I think it's that simple.
If you want it all to work as one then you have to pay the premium and use their particular set of products that work hand in hand.
 
This is all excellent, thank you everyone - I feel far more informed and have trawled amazon to browse a few more models.

In order to guard against both the 'stuck on' and 'stuck off' heater situations then, I think I'll be choosing from:
  • Elitech ATC-1550 at £20 (thanks for the photo Andrew). I'd plug a dual socket/extension into its heater socket, and plug two heaters into the dual socket. I set these to a slightly higher setting than the controller. If one sticks on it will have no impact, because they're both effectively stuck on anyway, in that setup. If one sticks off, then the other is still there to do the job.
  • Inkbird ITC 306A at £45 (yikes) which does the same job, with the dual heating sockets already fitted, and two temperature probes to guard against one failing...which makes sense but a bit pricey.
Both have alarms, which I want. The whole exercise, of course, assumes these units are themselves more reliable than heaters...otherwise I'm just swapping one risk for another 🙄. Any comments welcome; I don't know how to judge that.

Re guarding against a flood if distracted during a water change, I realised that the overflow will, for me, take place in the sump - not the tank - because excess water will run down the drilled outlet. Therefore I can just fit a cheap water leak alarm high up on the inside of the sump. £4 including delivery - what could possibly go wrong 😀

@Andrew Butler I'll be studying your very helpufl tips re addressing my excessing inflow tomorrow! I've already got foam over the hook opening yes, and we do have a bath actually yes, so I think I will give the siphon a go again. We backed off before because it's at the other end of the flat and one of us will probs trip over the pipe! I think I'd like to stick with the sump; I like to watch the water moving through (!) The current pump is an Octopus Varios2 which does have variable flow, but not low enough as things stand...
 
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