I have a 46 gallon bowfront fully planted tank with Eheim Ecco canister filter and a Hydor 200w inline heater. The heater was just 14 months old when it recently cooked 1/2 my fish. As they started to die I checked water parameters and they were perfect, but a quick temp check showed 97 degrees. Needless to say I unplugged it and put in a submersible backup heater. I really like the clean look of an inline filter, and have read on here many times that the Hydor is the best. Was this a fluke, or did I do something wrong. I really want to get another but as you can imagine, i'm a little worried. Any advice?
Heater boiled my fish!
- Thread starter petdocdave
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Lupin
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- Sep 21, 2006
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- Paul
My first heater was a hydor and I had the same problem it nearly cooked my fish!
I now have stealths on both my tanks and no problems here. You do hear the occasional complaint but marineland has excellent customer service and compared to how many people use them they are the best brand IMO.
I now have stealths on both my tanks and no problems here. You do hear the occasional complaint but marineland has excellent customer service and compared to how many people use them they are the best brand IMO.
Hmmm.... I wonder if I should replace mine. I had mine set up to a higher temp top try to speed up the healing of one of my fish a few months back. Now I it doesn't keep the water at the temperature that I set it at. I have it set at 71 and the temp stays at 80. I'm not sure if the light has anything to do with it. I guess better safe than sorry.
On this note here, and it may apply to the original post. All heaters need to be calibrated occasionally. You cant really go by the numbers on the dial.
To calibrate a heater, get a floating thermometer, put it in the tank after an hour or two compare the water temperature to the temperature setting on the heater, adjust as needed. For instance, if you have your heater set at 80 degrees and your tank water is 74 degrees, you will need to turn your heater setting to 86 degrees to compensate. As well, if you have your heater set at 80 degrees and your tank water is 86 degrees then you need to turn your heater to 74 degrees in order to maintain an 80 degree tank temp.
Oh, I don't go by the numbers on the dial.. I have a thermometer. But whatever I set the heater to used to be within a degree or two of the actual water temperature. Now the problem is I can't set the heater to anything lower than "71" and the actual temp is now around 81 degrees. Is there any way to fix/reset the thermostat on those things?
I use 2 of the 150watt stealth heaters in my 46 gallon. Where it is sitting neither one is capable of boiling the water by itself.... so if one fails ON, the other will just be off and give me time to see something is wrong...
Did this after I had a 250watt heater fail on when I first setup the tank and it boiled the only inhabitant.
Did this after I had a 250watt heater fail on when I first setup the tank and it boiled the only inhabitant.
Fauna loss due to equipment malfunctions really sucks.
I have converted all my heaters to Visitherm Stealth heaters.
They do a really good job and seem to be/stay very accurate.
I use PC lighting on all my C02 injected tanks. These do cause a rise in water temps, especially in summer months. I just adjust the heaters accordingly.
With the tanks that have hoods or enclosures, I mounted 120mm exhaust fans to come on with the lights.
I have converted all my heaters to Visitherm Stealth heaters.
They do a really good job and seem to be/stay very accurate.
I use PC lighting on all my C02 injected tanks. These do cause a rise in water temps, especially in summer months. I just adjust the heaters accordingly.
With the tanks that have hoods or enclosures, I mounted 120mm exhaust fans to come on with the lights.
