Heater failure

[cracks]

150 watt heater in a 55 gallon. Girlfriend came home and noticed my fish hardly moving. Temp check 100 degrees. Out of about 70 multis only about 8 survived, along with 5 fry. All of my julis are gone. My cyps seem to be doin ok, except they are very pale. I guess we will see who will survive till morning

[CrabbyMatty]

Sorry to hear about that Tom. There seems to be way too much of that happening lately.

[QuarterMiler]

Sorry to hear about the loss cracks:sad-smiley-002:. It's one of my nightmares too. If you don't mind, can you tell us what brand?

Sorry to hear about that Tom. There seems to be way too much of that happening lately.

I agree. I had a second heater in recent months fail me in a fry tank this week. I must be real lucky because both failed in the off position and the water was still 70 degrees. I'm really looking into brands different than those that have failed (both Marineland, one stealth pro and one glass visitherm).

[cracks]

It was a Theo hydor. I guess I'll move all the shells & multis back to a 10 gallon and get some sand sifters from RSC.

Edit: just dropped in some food and any remaining fish are earring like nothing happened

[QuarterMiler]

Thank you. I do have a couple of those and one was way off in calibration and could not keep a steady temp for anything. The others seem ok though. I'm glad to hear the rest seem like they'll make it, but it really sucks to lose so many.

[joe_jaskot]

Sorry to hear about your fish loss. I've said it many times, all heaters will fail regardless of brand. They are mechanical devices. If Tom had used two 75 watt heaters rather than one 150 watt heater in a 75 gallon tank, the tank would not have overheated when the heater failed.

[fischfan13]

Tom, sorry to hear...that's a huge loss.
Before talking about heaters I would suggest not feeding your fish at all for a few days. Temp fluctuations that are extreme are very stressful, and feeding might not be the best thing.

Being someone who has one of the colder fishrooms around I will add some very carefully evaluated observations from this Winter:
Submersible heaters should be FULLY submersed. I have found that tanks that have heaters that are barely or partially sticking out of the water column have temps that are higher than their settings.

Case in point with two tanks:
40g breeder
30g long
Both tanks had an evaporation of water and the tanks set at 75 degrees went up to 81...both of them. I topped off both tanks with water, and the temps dropped back to 76.

[cracks]

Yea the reason I bought that heater was because it had a temp dial no just a +/- so it was pretty easy set up. When I pulled it out the temp was set for 72 and the water was constant 78.

Joe, since that day I was at your house I've been wanting to get 2 75watt ones just haven't had the time or money.

Bill, the heater was fully submersed at all times always unplugged when ever I did a water change. And I bet my room gets alot colder than your fish room due to the fact we are usually too cheap to buy heating oil lol.

Since this is about heaters I'm gonna start a new thread about restocking options :coool!:

[twisted fisher]

man sorry to hear about your losses

a few months ago my furnace went down and i lost about 500 fish due to a stupid clogged nozzle!

Restocking is a fun but depressing endevor.

Good luck and if theres anything that i have let me know ill help ya out to fill that tank

[fishbuddy]

Got rid of all my visitherms for that reason, it happened twice with them.
i've had other heaters fail but only the visitherms fail on.

[cracks]

Well that was exactly a week ago. Since then I've been through 5, yes 5 more heaters. I was low on cash so I got 2 100 watt tetra ht30s ($21.99) the next day. They seemed pretty good, online reviews were positive, they had dual LEDs (one red one green) and was preset at 78. One crapped out the first night, so I exchanged it. 2 days later the other 2 crapped out as well. Figured hell I'll get the aqueons cause they are only $10 more since I was able to find an extra $20. Woke up yesterday morning and my lab tank was at 55! Just returned that one for a petco 100 watt cause they were out of the aqueons. Temp is starting to rise so I guess that one is working for the moment. Lol 5 heaters in 6 days.

[fishbuddy]

Wow I think you set some kind of record

[vgtorio]

Got rid of all my visitherms for that reason, it happened twice with them.
i've had other heaters fail but only the visitherms fail on.

My 2 vistherms failed in the off position. Caught it in time temp was 74. Both heaters were only 2-3 months old