Tragedy

[ImaxEventer]

I woke up this morning to find my entire 100g tank dead. Sometime in the night, my heater broke, sending temps in the tank to over 100 degrees.

I lost my three eleven-year-old clowns: Spot, Dora and Monster. I lost many other fish too, but these guys have been with me through a lot. I am missing them as I tear down the tank, to clean it and start again.

I don't contribute here, but have gotten all my info on how to keep my fishy friends healthy and happy for the past eleven years. I didn't count on the glass of my heater breaking (how did it happen? HOW???)

Anyway, I wanted to come here because I know you all will understand how I feel today.

[glenna]

I am SO sorry,
I cannot imagine how you feel. I am amazed that you have the fortitude to restart again so soon after that. I guess the important thing is to find a way to PREVENT such a disaster from happening again. In your case, I would not know what you COULD have done to have prevented this.
IT is sort of a freak accident. Maybe replace heaters on a schedule or something?
Anyway, glad to hear you ARE restarting.

[Keith Wolcott]

So sorry to hear this.

[Curtis]

Maybe an external heater controller so that the heater and the controller have to agree to heat before it does? Also, you could put 2 smaller heaters in the tank to split the load.

I'm sorry for your loss, but you did do something right to have 11 year old clowns.

www.jehmco.com has a bunch of heater controllers at least that is where I get them from.

[cider]

So heartbreaking to hear about your loss...you are right to share with us ,especially if it lessens your pain, even just a little. So sorry.
cider

[Marc999]

Perhaps try a hard plastic case heater, one of those marineland models. I.E. Visi-therm stealth. Just a thought.

Maybe your water level was too low and although the heater was supposed to shut off, it didn't...crack.

Good luck on your next project. The good news is, you could try some new species.

Marc

[ImaxEventer]

I appreciate all the kind words. And I appreciate all the ideas about heaters. I have been obsessing a bit about which one to get next.

I am looking at the Fluval E 100 watt Advanced Electronic Heater. Need to do a search on the forums to see if anyone has any opinions. Or feel free to pipe up!

[bookpage]

Really sorry to hear about your fish.

After reading about your experience, I started doing some research on heater controllers and found this. Thinking about getting it for my 125 gallon tank.

Finnex 500W Heater with
Digital Controller
HE-FX-HMD500

$44.95

http://www.aquacave.com/finnex-500w-hea ... 2052.html#

[ImaxEventer]

Great suggestion, bookpage. The Finnex looks like it may be a good solution. the more I read through other people's experiences, the more I realize how necessary a heater controller is.

I just never noticed before how many people have lost their fish due to the heater malfunctioning until it happened to me. I did a search on the forum and have spent the last hour reading story after story similar to mine. It is heartbreaking.

I have been so lucky for so long - I had no idea. This is my first tragedy (aside from a tough ick infestation about seven years ago, but I didn't loose the clowns).

[Ardillakilla]

A heater controller won't help when a heater dies and no longer produces heat (unless it has an alarm). That's exactly what happened to me last week.

How many watts per gallon did you have that one heater cooked your fish (presumably during the winter)?

I have two heaters in both of my larger tanks (75 & 125) and they can barely maintain tropical temperatures in the winter so I don't think they could cook my fish if they both stuck on. It's a possibility in the summer though but I always unplug my heaters in warm weather as UV and pumps produce enough waste heat to keep the tank warm.

I think dual heaters would protect against one dying and letting the temperature getting too low. If one sticks on in the summer, the other one will shut off and the temperature wouldn't get as high. Or you could just unplug them in the summer.

[ImaxEventer]

I am in Seattle, so the temps don't fluxuate much, especially this winter. It has been so mild. It is 48 right now (9pm) and the days are around 55.

I honestly don't remember the wattage of the bad heater. I have had it since I set up my current aquarium almost seven years ago now. When I threw it away, I was not thinking and did not look at the wattage. It kept the tank at 78 - 80 that whole time, though. Regardless of the outside temps. Super hot days her are 88 - 90 and only last for a couple of days at the most. and we all think we are going to DIE from the heat.

[bigpow]

Sorry for your losses. Kudos for the spirit to keep loaches again.

Last year I lost my loach friends as well, never figured out what happened, and even now I don't feel like restarting the tank. In fact, I sold most of my tanks already.

Speaking of heater failure, glass heater do break and even an in-line exterior heater could run out of control.
Is there an easy way to have a high temp limiter for heater? Anybody that uses or know the know-how to do this, please share your knowledge.

[NancyD]

I'm sorry too. Ken has Finnex heaters & contollers for good priceshttp://www.kensfish.com/finnextitaniumheaters.html I have no experience with them but ken is good to deal with.

[Keith Wolcott]

The temperature controller that I have is

http://aquariumsuppliesplus.com/pro462892.html

I have two heaters plugged into this so they only operate at the same time.

[Katy]

I am so sorry! What an awful tragedy to wake up to!!!

I can't comment personally on the Finnex, but when we were shopping recently for heaters the Finnex ones seemed to get a lot of bad reviews.

After our own tank tragedy we got a temp alarm for the tank -- goes off whenever the temp gets too high or too low. Unfortnuately, it isn't loud enough to wake the dead, which would be a nice feature as the tanks are downstairs and our bedroom upstairs. It also doesn't help if no on eis home