Heater over heating

stephstar

stephstar

Kootenay Girl
Aug 12, 2008
149
0
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Canada
www.darkspeedslidepucks.com
So, I could not find a thread on this, sooo, I was wondering if any one eles had this issue?
My heater (Whisper) went loopy yesterday. I checked on my tank in the morning, everything was fine. In the afternoon, I walked by the tank and saw one of my Harlies was dead on the bottom. I opened the top and noticed it was very warm. Checked the themometer and it was 94 degrees in there!!!!!
The heater was still on.
I took it out, changed some of the water. Then put another heater in there. I am going to bring back this heater to my lfs.
Has this ever happened to anyone?
 
i got a really cheap (like a clearanced 7 dollar HOB) heater once for my quarantine tank, and i walked past it one day and noticed all the fish darting around and some just laying on the bottom, well the tank was 96 degrees. i think that the heater i had was just cheap/old
 
I boiled a pleco one time like that... taught me a valuble lesson.... Now my tanks have 2 heaters in them.. both slightly below size to do the job alone. Together they keep the temp happy, but if one fails ON (and they always seem to fail ON) the other will give me time to notice a problem because the temp is slightly low verse to hot.

This works great with tanks large enough to require more than 25 watt heaters since I can't seem to find an adjustable below that size.
 
robbob2112 said:
I boiled a pleco one time like that... taught me a valuble lesson.... Now my tanks have 2 heaters in them.. both slightly below size to do the job alone. Together they keep the temp happy, but if one fails ON (and they always seem to fail ON) the other will give me time to notice a problem because the temp is slightly low verse to hot.

This works great with tanks large enough to require more than 25 watt heaters since I can't seem to find an adjustable below that size.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure how the temp would be slightly low if one fails on.

but the temp may take a bit longer to rise.
I do the same.. use 2 slightly smaller heaters.

this sort of thing happens. I prefer the stealth heater I have had less problems with these.
 
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I've had All Glass, Won Bros. and Tetra heaters all do that. Started using Jager and Stealths as replacements and have had good luck since. Lately I started using Guardians to replace the rest of the cheap glass (Jagers have a thicker glass) heaters 'cuz Kens Fish has been sellin' em at a real good price. I guess they're going to discontinue them or something but I've had real good luck with them in my big fish tanks where they take a real beating. They aren't as easy to hide as the Stealths but most of my tanks are breeders or holding tanks so I'm mainly interested in function and price.
 
star_rider said:
I'm not sure how the temp would be slightly low if one fails on.

but the temp may take a bit longer to rise.
I do the same.. use 2 slightly smaller heaters.

this sort of thing happens. I prefer the stealth heater I have had less problems with these.
Click to expand...

hrm, looking at my logic trying to explain it... if I use 2 x 250 watt heaters verse 1 x 300 watt heater... if one fails ON, it will stay hard on all the time, but because it is undersized it is incapable of overheating the water by itself even when stuck ON.... the one that isn't busted will cycle on and off at its normal temp... So, I guess the temp would actually stay in the normal range and I would only notice a failed ON heater if I checked it periodically.... Now, a failed OFF heater would cause a lower than normal temp without letting it get dangerously cold....

OK, that makes sense to me now... I knew I was doing it for some reason to prevent overheating...

And, like you I use the stealth heaters all around.... have had other units fail, but not one of those....
 
I've never tried one but I read somewhere on these forums that the reason the new digital controllers were thought to be such an improvement had something to do the way that two separate heaters typically cycle. I may be summarizing this incorrectly but I believe that the digitals have a tighter differential between the set temp. and the activation point.

In other words. when you set a Stealth or a Jager to 80 it may drop to 78 before coming on again and then warm to 82 before shutting down again. Additionally having two heaters invariably leads to one unit doing most of the work and consequently leading to one consistantly failing before the other. I'm not sure that I understand why it would matter.

I run (2) 250w. Guardians in a 150g community tank that's set at 80 and using a digital thermometer at opposite ends the worst I've seen is a .4 degree variance from one end to the other regardless of which heater is on.

Other than being able to set the temp. without getting wet I don't get why the digitals are such a big deal. Not tryin' to be a Ludite, I just wonder sometimes if we don't fall for new just 'cuz it's new. Anybody have any practical experience with one vs. the other as far as pros and cons?

Do the digitals run amuck? I have heard that one of the red Chinese versions works perfectly for about a year, and then it just quits. Aside from that, just how sensitive are the fish to temp. variations? Even in the Amazon it's got to cool off some at night or after a heavy rain.

Just a thought.
 
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