Help - Heater malfunctioned - What do I do?!

[tukituki]

I was just turning off my fish tank lights for the night, and was trying to see where my lovely little gba fry were. They hide behind the filter so I was leaning over the tank to see them, it felt very warm. We haven't had the lights on much lately but today its been on since lunch time. Seemed weird. I put my hand in the tank and it was pretty warm. Our fish are usually at 24 degrees roughly. This temperature was more like what I'd give my kids for a bath. The neons were dead, the bristlenose adults not looking very happy. I took about half the tank water out and replaced it with cold. Now the tank seems close to the right temperature, maybe 28. Its similar to my jewel tank which I think is at 27.

Was trying to even out the temperature the right thing to do? What can I do for them now? I've lost my fry which is really sad, we've not had much luck with them lately. We have a trio of bristlenose adults, some juveniles too, a couple of baby swordtails, lots of guppies. I thought I'd lose them all if I didn't take action.

[Zayne]

are you sure you dont have the heater up too high? how long have you had the tank running for? where abouts is your tank located?

[tukituki]

its set at the same temperature as usual. its been in its current location for a year roughly. the inside of the heater (now removed of course) has gone green. tank is located in my dining room. close to another tank at a similar temp. time to get out the spare heaters now. i've heard of heaters cooking the fish from several people before. seems to be my fish turn today (

[Zayne]

ok its good you have another heater just chuck that in

[tukituki]

2 small heaters, should do until the morning. its not cold in here luckily. i hope my adult bn survive this horrible ordeal.

[Joshlikesfish]

I once heated my BN pair to 40 degrees for 2 days . They were all good

Not on purpose btw. Really don't like masterpet heaters anymore

[tukituki]

i'd say this tank must've been getting warmer the last few hours. def not all day as i had been checking it lots cause of the fry.

i'm glad your bn pair survived. gives me hope my trio do too. i think the water was about 40 degrees. is it the right thing to take out half the water and put back in cold? i couldn't think what else to do. this was an aquaone heater, probably 2 years old.

pretty stressful situation but at least i realised before going to bed rather than the morning.

[Zayne]

i find bristlenose are quite hardy fish my tank went cold for 2 days and they survived just fine

[alanmin4304]

It sounds like water has got in to the heater and corroded the points on the thermostat so the are permanently closed and always on. The best thing is to replace with a good heater/thermostat and let the temperature drop by itself. Rapid change in temperature is worse than extremes of temperature.

[Warren]

If you can afford it you could try using 2 or 3 smaller heaters set as closely as possible in temperature to each other. The idea behind this is that no one heater is enough to keep the tank at temperature on it's own. Then if it fails to the on state it's not going to cook the fish. I've always used 3 heaters minimum even if it means buying very low wattage heater for smaller tanks. My big tank had 4 x 200W in it. When one of the heaters did eventually fail to the on state the tank only went up 3'C and everything survived.

[tukituki]

thanks everyone. 3 fish died, plus the fry. not the worst outcome.

so when its sort of green inside the heater it means it is corroding? for one of my other tanks we bought a new heater about 1-2 months ago. its 90L and heater is 150w, it is corroding a bit inside and can't seem to go above 25 the last couple of weeks (its set at 27). Should I be worried about this heater too?

[spoon]

I once heated my BN pair to 40 degrees for 2 days . They were all good

Not on purpose btw. Really don't like masterpet heaters anymore

those masterpet heaters arent designed to be submerged dodgy things they are ! i always leave the top out of the water with all my heaters now if i can even the eheim

[smidey]

most or all heaters have a minimum water level, i keep the tops of my jagers that are short enough out of the water but that just keeps the top nice & clean not practical for my 300w which is nearly 2 foot long so it is horizontal at the bottom.

get a good quality heater if you can, they save so much drama in the long run.

[tukituki]

my jebo heater seems to manage well. aquaone heaters have failed on me in the past but i have realised in time as its been gradual, they just all of a sudden can't maintain the temperature. i'm going to see if i can take back the heater i bought a month or so ago, thing is they never gave me a proper receipt at my pet shop.

[smidey]

the jebos will fail, i had 6 of them now i have a few lying around for when i do big water cahnges & want to bring the temp up faster. all of my six got to the point where they got moisture in the & jammed on, i would look at replacing those before round two of fried fish happens.

[tukituki]

since i'm going heater shopping very soon which heater would you recommend? its for a 120L tank.

[smidey]

i am really impressed with the jagers, they are all i will buy but others like fluval will be good to i am sure. naturally they cost more but they last alot longer & keep the tank very close to the desired temp all the time.

[phoenix44]

Jager. Get a Jager.

[MarkLB]

Ditto. Jagers are totally reliable and well worth the extra $ for peace of mind.

[tukituki]

i guess it depends how much extra, i will have a look. thanks 4 the recommendations.

[smidey]

for a 125L tank i would get a 150w which is way overkill but you won't have any temp issues. they are on TM for around $65 new.

[SamH]

Jager are very quality heaters. If not, get an aquaone, they are good for their price.

[Warren]

I've found Jager the best too - never had one fail.

[tukituki]

I looked at the Jager's but just couldn't afford it. I went to another pet shop to compare and see what ones they had (where I also returned the heater I had bought recently which wasn't working so good, they replaced), and ended up with a Rena as they were on special. It seems better quality than the aqua one heaters so I hope it worth the extra little bit of money. Its a 150w heater so I hope its good enough. The guy in the shop said I really needed a 200w which they didn't have in stock, it wouldn't have fitted in my tank I reckon! Maybe next time I need a heater I'll go for Jager, sell some fish to afford it haha. No fry for a few months now I expect but at least my trio seem well.

[tukituki]

i just realised i actually own a jager! i've had a large heater for a few years that came with a complete set up. its 300w so really big, it wouldn't have fitted in the tank i needed to buy a heater for today. it would fit in my main tank though if the jebo fails. would anyone be able to explain the temperature setting on it please? it has numbers 1-9.