Heater Problem

[yohkos]

Sad day at work!

My 20 long is at work and when I arrived this morning from the weekend, most of my fish were dead and the temp. reached 100 degrees. So much for that heater. I will never never buy another Hydor again, had it for over a month is all!

Anyway I lost all my cories even the babies. Some of the cories I had for 6 years. :sad:

Four, maybe only three platies have survived. One is looking ill. Two balloon mollies and one fry and a female beta is what I have left. The tank looks so empty. It is a well planted tank and the plants don't even seem phased by the temp. spike.

I lost all the neons too.

My question is what can I put in there that will get along with my slow moving balloon mollies (lucille and ethel) and what is the really small cory? I had albinos but would like to go with a different kind this time.

It has been a sad day and I am off to the store to purchase another heater. Does anyone know what kind is dependable. I bought this other one from Big Als, but don't have time to order online.

Thanks for you help. I miss my babies :sad:

[viboy]

Buy an Ebo Jager. The difference in cost is minimal but the difference in quality is huge.

[Holly9937]

Wow thats really sad :sad: !!! One of those horror stories you hear sometimes and hope it never happens to you :sad: . I think panda corys and pygmy corys are smaller than regular corys. Maybe some more mollys and platys since you know the betta tolerates them well?

[tomm10]

Buy an Ebo Jager. The difference in cost is minimal but the difference in quality is huge.

I had an Ebo fail on me. Not a knock on them just proof that any heater can freak out.

[Hannys_Papa]

I am curious - what size heater was it and what was the office temp ?

[yohkos]

Thanks,

I am really gun shy about heaters now. I have heard other people having this happen but never thought it would especially from a new heater. I will get another since winter is coming but I am really scared this will happen again and will probably be worry every weekend when I am not here.

Are there heaters that will shut off when they reach a certain temperature???

I miss my fish sooo much and hope this never happens to any of you. The water was like my bath water...those poor fish.

Kim

[Holly9937]

Any heater, once you get it adjusted properly to where it holds a stable temp. should turn off once it gets any higher than that. Some heaters actually have the temp. on them, so you can set the dial at 76 for instance, but that still doesn't ensure that it won't go haywire. I would just buy one of the more expensive brands, whatever it may be.

[yohkos]

Holly,

It was stable and does have a temp. guide which was set at 76. I guess it just went beserk. I had a 200 watt, is this the reason why? Maybe I will go to 100 watt for a 20 gallon.

[Hannys_Papa]

Take a look at this page (http://freshaquarium.about.com/cs/tipsandtables/l/blheatersize.htm).

Thats just a general guide and i've seen slighty different measurement guides on the boxes of heaters. It sure depends on your tank (thickness of glass, dimensions etc), hood and other factors but as you can see:

With 200W in a 20G you could raise the temperature easily 30 degrees F above room temperature. Now thats ok if the office temp goes down to 50 degrees sometimes - but if it always stays above 60 or 65 then you could do with a smaller heater.

If you want to be safe just use 2 heaters instead of 1. (for example 50W x 2). Then even if one fails and stays on constantly it isnt powerful enough to heat up the aquarium too far.

[macphoto]

If you want to be safe just use 2 heaters instead of 1. (for example 50W x 2). Then even if one fails and stays on constantly it isnt powerful enough to heat up the aquarium too far.
Ditto that... I did this for my 16g, both because I was a bit worried about a 75W or 100W heater getting stuck on and boiling my fish, and because we only heat the house minimally during the winter (though in Louisiana, we usually don't have much of a winter!), so I wanted at least a little redundancy so as to not freeze them either.

I ended up with a 25W placed horizontally along the back wall of the tank, behind a castle decoration that mostly obscures it, and a 50W placed vertical in the "traditional" heater location over on the opposite side of the tank. The 50W is set a little bit cooler than the 25W... my thinking was that the 25W would normally do most of the heating duties, with the 50W usually only kicking in if the house was especially cold.

So far, so good!

--Mike

[Harry Tolen]

Any heater can get stuck in the "on" position, especially but not exclusively the ones with bimetal control units (which is what most heaters, including Jaegers, use). With 21 tanks and 44 years of fishkeeping experience, I have seen it happen all too many times. No matter who is the manufacturer, or what style or model you choose; they all can and do malfunction.

So the best advice out there is not to overheat your tanks, and to split the duty between two heaters so that one sticking in the "on" positon won't boil your fish. If you have a 20g tank and your ambient room temperature doesn't drop below the mid-60's, you should be able to get away with (2) 25W heaters. Even if one just flat out fails and doesn't generate any heat at all, your tank shouldn't drop to dangerously low temps, as long as the other is still working.