my tank is overheating

[DoctaQ]

20L planted with 55w PC, stealth heater set to 78 with thermometer, was accurate a couple weeks ago, just noticed today when i put my hand in the water. water was 88 deg, and my heater was still on, i think, it was hot on part of it.
the tank is open top.
heres the kicker
i have a magnum hot 250gph with diy spraybar and also an ac50 hob
i was in the process of switching filters, i inject co2 but otherwise thats about it.
i unplugged the heater and just waiting to see now, its dropped to 86, is it possible that the canister did this?
i would much rather replace the heater than have to ditch the canister

[Siphon1]

It may be the heater! I have the same heater set to 80 in both a 55 and a 20 gallon tank. After 3 weeks of stable temps both tanks jumped to 85. The heater does shut off which leads me to believe they are just calibrated wrong.

[Navyscuba]

I had the same issue with my stealth emailed marineland and they sent me a new stealth pro. Make sure that when you do a water change the water level don't go below the heater.

[FinFanatic]

Never heard of a filter causing a temp spike.

Almost assured it's your heater. If it was still on when it should turn off at 78, it's gotta be the heater.

[DoctaQ]

i thought that some kind of excessive filtration and power heads and such can cause oveheating because of all the gears and mechanical ineffeciency and all, but i guess not?
the stealth was working fine for me for a year and i just recently added the filter which is what led me to beleive that it was the filter, does anybody else use this filter on such a small tank?

[justinf67]

doctaq, it can increase ur temps, but only marginally. I had a sump that was powered by a pretty big return pump and it increased the temp a few degrees. But, it takes some large units to do that. It sounds like ur heater is the issue

[DoctaQ]

welp, it was definateley the heater, i unplugged it and the temp went back down to 78ish, if thats the temp without a heater maybe i js dont need it on at all, just set it to 78 incase it gets really cold

[BettaFishMommy]

good thing you caught it before the heater could really warm things up!


i don't use heaters in either of my 55's, usually keep the room temp at about 23 celcius, and i find that the tanks never go below 76F, even during a water change with the lids off the tank and filters turned off.

[tackful]

Recently had the same problem with a 3 yr old heater. Just for fun I disassembled the thing and found the problem. As the temp control is adjusted, it either pushed or retracts a plastic rod which pushed against a metal contact strip. Somehow the rod got pushed too far in. By breaking off the plastic limiting tab on the temp control nob I was able to turn it back enough to retract the plastic rod to its proper position. Took a while find the proper temperature setting after I put it back it the tank, but that was a year ago and no problems since.

[The Zigman]

Stealths have a lifetime warranty. if it is defective, send it back to marineland for a replacement. I have 8 stealths and no issues with them, but I did send 1 back for replacement.

[DoctaQ]

that sounds awesome , thanks for the info zig. i bought a sera one today, came reccomended and i ll give that a try, i do really like stealth and i use them on the rest of my tanks.