(energetic music)
- Hey, it's Thomas here.
And today we're going to be setting up this
Helio PTC heating system from innovative Marine.
We're going to go from unboxing to heating your reef.
It is preset and super easy to do,
but I will also show you how you can do things like
set the temperature,
set the alarms calibrate so on and so forth.
So let's do this.
In the box you'll find the Helio controller,
the titanium PTC heating element,
the titanium temperature sensor,
the magnetic mounts for both
the heating element and the temperature sensor,
as well as some double-sided Velcro tape for mounting your
Helio controller, and a comprehensive user manual.
First, we're going to connect the probe and heating elements
to the Helio controller.
The sensor goes into the first connection on the left.
You can then attach the small round magnet to the sensor and
your heating element or elements go on the two connections
on the right.
After that, slide the heating element or elements
into their magnetic holders.
Next, place the temp sensor and heating elements
in the back of your all-in-one aquarium, your sump,
or just your aquarium using the magnetic mounts.
Helio has suggested placement diagrams right there
in the manual that you can follow.
Similarly to the diagrams,
I really like to have my heating sensor
ahead of the heating element.
That way the water has to pass by the sensor,
then the heating element
heat up the entire volume of water in the tank first,
before that sensor is going to be able to read that the
water has raised in temperature to shut off the element.
That way you don't have your heating element accidentally
telling your heating sensor that it's time to shut down
because the water around the sensor has changed before the
rest of the tank.
Do make sure that wherever you place your sensor and
heating elements,
that they are always fully submersed.
Avoid areas where the water level can
fluctuate, like the return section of your
filter or your sump.
That way they're always below the waterline
even if you forget to top off your ATO reservoir.
Next, you can mount the Helio controller anywhere that's
convenient to access, adjust, and hear,
while also being away from water.
A controller board or the outside of your aquarium stand,
or a wall or cabinet beside the tank are all great options.
The next step is to plug it into power.
For a lot of us,
that will be all we need to do since the Helio is preset to
77 degrees Fahrenheit with alarms,
a few degrees above and below that,
which is perfect for the average reefer.
However, if you are replacing an existing heater
and you don't usually keep your tank around 77 degrees,
you'll want to adjust the temp to match your tank's
normal temperature.
To adjust the temperature,
press the mode button one time,
and the screen will read set.
Then you can adjust the temperature by pressing
the plus and minus buttons.
Once you land on the temp you want,
wait three seconds and it'll automatically save
the temp setting, and go back to the main screen.
To set the high temperature alarm,
press the mode button three times,
and the display will read high.
Then you can use those plus and minus buttons to adjust the
temperature that will set off the alarm.
The minimum variance is one degree.
So, for example,
if you set your temp for the aquarium at 78 degrees,
then the high alarm can be 79 degrees Fahrenheit or higher.
Once you've landed on the temp you like,
wait three seconds for it to save.
For the low alarm,
press the mode button four times.
The screen will read low,
and you can adjust the temp with those
plus and minus buttons.
For the low alarm,
the minimum variance is two degrees.
So for example,
if your set temp is at 78 degrees Fahrenheit,
the low alarm can be 76 Fahrenheit or lower.
Once you've landed on the temp you want,
wait three seconds for it to save out.
And of course, you also have the option to turn off the
audible alarm.
If that's not something you want and you prefer to stick to
just a visual alarms.
To turn it off,
there's a toggle switch below the three buttons
on the side of the Helio controller.
Just flick it over to turn it off, and flick it back over to
turn it back on.
To calibrate, first make sure you have
a trusted quality thermometer.
I highly recommend a
NIST certified thermometer like this one.
To access that calibration, press the mode button
two times and the screen will read CAL.
You can then adjust the calibration in
0.1 degree increments with up to
nine degrees of variance to match the Helio
to your NIST thermometer in the same body of water.
I highly recommend using your tank.
Then, once you've entered the variance,
give it three seconds to save out.
There are also a series of error codes that can be displayed
if something were to go wrong,
all of which are explained in the manual on page 26.
So if you see E1, E2, up to E7 on the display,
you can quickly jump into the manual
and see what that error code is
and make an adjustment to the
heating element or probe placement,
or check the connections to make sure
they're all secured and so on.
And that's it.
You would have officially set up
and adjusted your innovative
Marine Helio PTC heating system.
I do, however, highly recommend
you check out our top heater mistakes video,
even though there's a really good chance
you are not going to make any of them
after watching this one.
The last thing you want to do is make a mistake that
we already know how to fix or know how to avoid entirely.
So you can check it out by clicking right here.