DOOMSDAY HAPPENED(warning)

LoachOrgy · Post by **LoachOrgy** » Sat Mar 17, 2007 12:57 pm

today I wokeup to my tank being 100 degrees and half my tank wiped out. all of my glow light tetras and a few neon all died. I lost several fish that I had for over 7 yrs. I AM SO PO'D!!!!!!!!!!

this is the 3rd time that a heater has malfunctioned on my tank and caused death. take this as a warning to everyone. i have had this happen 3 times with no cause but the heater malfunctioning. i didn't use a heater on this tank for over a year because of this. here is the brand name of this heater. Penn-Plax

I just noticed that a week or so ago the heater in the loach tank has malfunctioned. I was always a bit reluctant to buy another heater bc this has happened in the past but now I am very reluctant.

Does anyone know any heater that you can buy in the us. that has some sort of switch that turns off after the temp is around 84 degrees. to me this is a fatal flaw and has cost me many fish over the years. I truly am dissappointed and I don't know if I will ever get another fishtank heater. the temp here never reaches below 70 in the house temperature. but most of the time the tank temp stays about 78 degrees. ....

The other tank has this brand Acura 1000. The Acura has an adjustable temp gauge. This other brand that fried the fish had one of those adjustable nobs that you really don't see a true temp it just tells you to measure with a thermometer. I thought maybe it had been accidentally bumped but there is no way with the location of the heater for anyone to reach it without a ladder. So it must have malfunctioned. I am not surprised this is the 3rd time these garbage heaters have done this.

Sorry LOL in my frustration I posted this on the loach forum. this needs to be in the freshwater.
ANY SUGGESTIONS?

shari2 · Post by **shari2** » Sat Mar 17, 2007 1:28 pm

So sorry to hear it!

When failure of a piece of equipment leads to total wipeout like yours, or even if the equipment fails without any devastation, it's time to contact the manufacturer of the product and let them know what has happened.

In my case, I ordered a Penn Plax canister filter that arrived with a small piece of plastic broken off. I called the number on the packing slip and explained the issue. They asked me no questions, but sent me a replacement filter (complete setup, not just a part) and said I can keep the broken one. Profuse apologies, and instant replacement. (btw-I glued the broken piece on to see if it would work and it is working now on the 55g in tandem with the replacement one...should I feel guilty????)

If you still have the package, contact them. Give them a chance to make it right and to address what is likely a defect in their product.

Here's the contact info for Penn-Plax:

http://www.pennplax.com/
Here's hoping they will respond positively.

Emma Turner · Post by **Emma Turner** » Sat Mar 17, 2007 1:40 pm

Sorry to hear this, LO.

I would recommend the Hagen (Fluval) Tronic heaters. These have a built-in safety shut-off.

Emma

LoachOrgy · Post by **LoachOrgy** » Sat Mar 17, 2007 2:24 pm

thanks for the replies guys. yeah shari, i don't trust the product i am going to try another one. i will report this to them. thanks emma I will have to try these out. the idea of a shut-off sounds more reliable.

crazy loaches · Post by **crazy loaches** » Sat Mar 17, 2007 3:58 pm

By far the most popular heaters on polls I have seen in other forums are the Visitherm Stealth heaters. They are all black too so they blend in nicely with black backgrounds or even any for that mater. I have some of the stealths and some of the Visitherm Deluxe ones. They all have a preset temp range (not just those annoying + and - ones that you have to figure out). The other option albeit much more expensive is to use a heater controller. This is especially good on larger aquariums with multiple heaters so all heaters can be synchronized and just one is always picking up all the work. This type of setup can also introduce somewhat of a failsafe design. For example say your controlling to 78*F. You can set your actual heaters lets say at 84*, and you controller to 78*. So the controller will turn on power to the heaters when its below 78* and since the individual heaters are set to 84* they will always be on as long as the controller turns them on. If one of the heaters internal switches weld closed it doesn’t matter, when 78* is reached the controller will just shutoff the power to the heater. Also if you controller switch welds shut then power will always be applied to the heaters, so they will go up to their individual setting which is 84*, still ok for this emergency situation. So in order for the heaters to run all the time and drive the temp way up both the controller and at least 1 heater would have to have failed, so you have added one more failsafe into the design. I'll probably be using a controller of some sort on my big tank I am setting up.

WhtDragn101 · Post by **WhtDragn101** » Sat Mar 17, 2007 7:41 pm

Visitherm Stealth heaters

I second this. I have two 200 watt ones and they keep my tank at steady 85 degrees. They have a plastic covering, so breakage is practically impossible. Of course, there is always a slim chance of overheating, but that applies to most heaters out there. I got mine from http://www.bigalsonline.com

fishnose · Post by **fishnose** » Sun Mar 18, 2007 12:15 pm

AH HAH!! I thought it wasn't just me! I had a Penn-Plax "therma-flow PC plus" heater in my tank for a while, luckily I had pretty hardy fish. The temparature would drop to 60 or below and all I had to do to get the heater to turn on again was push on the adjustment knob. sometimes it would stabalize at around 78-80 and then without warning, shoot up to 95, shut off and drop back down to 60 over night.

I had to use both of my backup heaters and get rid of the thing. one of them is a Tronic submersible, very reliable, the other is a Second Nature "Challenger". It is very slightly less accurate, letting the temperature vary around 2 degrees but I don't think the fish care about that when they had survived such extreme fluctuations in the past.[/code]

LoachOrgy · Post by **LoachOrgy** » Sun Mar 18, 2007 4:07 pm

Fishnose,

My model was the exact one that you said. Penn Plax Therma Flow PC Plus.

LUVaLOACH · Post by **LUVaLOACH** » Sun Mar 18, 2007 4:27 pm

I am so very sorry for you loss. I can relate as I am in crisis with one of my tanks as we speak.

I had that happen to me with a heater once but caught it soon enough luckily.

It's worth the money for one with an automatic shut-off.

Again, so sorry.

Krista

worldrallynut · Post by **worldrallynut** » Sun Mar 18, 2007 9:29 pm

i have had luck with visitherm and ebo-jager heaters. When i worked for the lfs, I had several cases of penn-plax's cooking tanks. Sorry for your loss.

Total Package · Post by **Total Package** » Mon Mar 19, 2007 8:52 am

had a similar thing happen yesterday. Was doing a water change and noticed the tank water was really hot. Looks like my heater busted (why do they always seem to fail on?? Shouldnt' they be designed to be more likely to fail off?) and had the tank over 86F..

Lost an Otto and a guppy, so far. At least the loaches survived it.

Curtis · Post by **Curtis** » Mon Mar 19, 2007 11:20 am

This is the site that I bought my temperature controller off of. It has worked flawlessly for years.

http://www.jehmco.com/PRODUCTS_/HARDWAR ... oller.html

crazy loaches · Post by **crazy loaches** » Mon Mar 19, 2007 7:25 pm

Total Package wrote:...Looks like my heater busted (why do they always seem to fail on?? Shouldnt' they be designed to be more likely to fail off?) and had the tank over 86F..

They fail on because the cheap contacts used in their internal switches arc when switching a high electrical load, and weld together so they cannot break the contact anymore. This happens to other things in the industry also, I have had a power tools like a table saw switch fail on due to the contacts arcing and welding together.

Curtis - I have seen others use that controller as well.

brett_fishman · Post by **brett_fishman** » Wed Mar 21, 2007 12:32 am

Emma Turner wrote:I would recommend the Hagen (Fluval) Tronic heaters.

i second that..

i just picked up two 200w tronics yesterday for the 75g..

most heaters rely on a bi-metallic switch to thermostatically regulate the temperature...these heaters work fine for a while, until the switch wears out and STICKS, which therefore keeps the heat on full until you come home to a tank full of dead fish... its the sad truth..

anywho, thats why i recommend the use of electronic heaters (electronically controlled, no switches) like the Hagen Tronic line of heaters

-brett.

LoachOrgy · Post by **LoachOrgy** » Wed Mar 21, 2007 12:53 am

I just ordered the hagen fluval heater with shutoff valve. Should be here this week. They don't carry them at any of the lfs here and by the time I went all the way to Big Al's I had already ordered the heater.

Loaches Online Forum

DOOMSDAY HAPPENED(warning)

DOOMSDAY HAPPENED(warning)

sorry

Who is online

Go to page

About us