Bonus to being predictable

[newbreed]

Luckily I am predictable and always looking at my tanks.

Had a freak out tonight when I had a look at my tanks, including my favourite CRS tank in the garage! Something just looked off, not quite as active as they normally are. I felt the glass and it was icy!!

It was at 13.5 degrees at 10pm, usually constant at 22.

Because I check them daily I know this wasn't the case yesterday, so my heaters died today at some stage.

Luckily I have a spare heater, or three, so could address the issue quickly.

Everyone looks ok but I guess the next few days will show if they have been stressed out by the experience. I will be devastated if I have big losses in this tank. Any losses in fact.

Just wanted to remind everyone, it's worth checking the tanks as often as possible, especially as the cold weather is hitting hard already!

[revolutionhope]

+1

great u spotted it within 24 hours newbreed hope all is ok !

I lost most and eventually all of the inhabitants (neon tetras) of one of my first aquariums to a fungus when my aqua one heater failed :-(

[revolutionhope]

sorry to semi-hijack but on a very related subject I remember reading about heater thermostats failing and constantly heating and heating the aquarium until it becomes fish soup.

id love to hear if this happened to anyone here before!

[Morgan]

That's just happened to someone on a fb group I'm in. Their heater failed to turn off and the tank shot up to 35. When I was running larger tanks I used to run two heaters that were each about three quarters of the wattage I needed, so if one failed either on or off the other could balance it out for a while. Of course, that's a bit less practical for smaller tanks.

[anthonyd]

I lost all my twb berried females due to a heater failure...i had another heater who completly stopped working during the winter and another one who gave me electric shock everytime my hand was in contact of the water. These were not cheap heaters.

Since then i heat the shrimp room, still have a heater in the sulawesi tank though. Will have to get a digital thermometer with alarm for it.

[kizshrimp]

It's common for a thermostat to stick "on" and cook a tank of fish. We used to recommend Jager heaters because they tended to go the other way but I don't know what's the go now with the Eheim Jagers. They certainly aren't as good anymore. 

 

Last year I was rooting through boxes of old aquarium equipment looking for heaters to use. Plenty with stuck thermostats, blown heater elements, leaking tubes. The expensive units have fared no better than the cheap ones. In fact the most reliable was the cheapest, least respected brand which is no longer manufactured. A look around my tanks shows that cheap and expensive brands seem to have similar failure rates. You need to check your tanks daily as Newbreed does, or have audible alarms on the thermometers as Anthony suggests. 

 

Again as Anthony does now, I also heat the room itself which is the best and safest way. I only use heaters in tanks which need to be warmer or are not in the heated room. 

[jc12]

I plug my heater to a separate thermostat with a temperature probe as a contingency. Should the heater malfunction and try to cook the tank, the separate thermostat would cut off power supply to the heater.

 

Similarly, you could employ the same to a chiller (to prevent over-chilling) or cooling fans during summer (e.g. for nano tanks requiring cooling - to turn on the fan when it hits a set temperature so the fan is not running 24/7).

 

The thermostat is going for $10+ off ebay.

[Disciple]

Lucky you put this post up jamie.

I have been having a feeling something was off with all the shrimp i moved into the new tank.

I check the wp and everything was fine. Last night after reading the post again i thought i would check the temperature and even though i put my temp on the heater at 23 my tank was ard 26.5. I adjusted the heater and by the morning it was at a better 24.5. I am a bit worried it dropped by 2 degree over night but they seem fine and i found a newly berried gb.

[newbreed]

I am happy to report the tank is now nice and warm and everyone seems fine so far!! Just glad I am a creature of habit and caught it when I did!!

I have had a heater do the overheat thing, thankfully was with my discus so didn't do long term damage and again, it was noticeable within a day that something was off!!

I generally use the basic aqua one heaters and have never really been disappointed, the heater in question is a couple of years old so was ok value for money. Their new thermo safe units failed for me three in a row, thankfully in unstocked tanks, so have avoided them.

I am glad the thread has been of help, hope all goes well Disciple I am sure the two degree swing should be fine for them. Congrats on the berried Mumma!!

[Disciple]

I am glad the thread has been of help, hope all goes well Disciple I am sure the two degree swing should be fine for them. Congrats on the berried Mumma!!

Just kicking myself for not checking it before.

Good news is when i was leaving for work the males in the tibee/gb section was swimming around frantically. Fingers crossed i'll have another berried mama today.