leesnuts Posted June 25, 2003 Share Posted June 25, 2003 I had my tank up for about 6 months and everything was going well. One night my water heater was stuck and never turned off and elevated the water temperature above 90 plus degrees (probable hotter because my temp gage only goes to 90). In the morning when the lights turned on automatically I noticed that the water was milky. I stuck my fingure into the water and it was really hot. I did my best to lower the temperature by using ice but with no luck. I ended up loosing almost half of my live stock that night which really p***ed me off. I ended up loosing more because the water conditions were messed up also. Any how fair warning be careful you might do the same. The last 2 months I have monitored the temperature more closely and everything seems to be fine. Link to comment
katydidit Posted June 25, 2003 Share Posted June 25, 2003 what kind of heater was it? (kind of a FYI for those of us who are looking around...) Link to comment
chufa Posted June 25, 2003 Share Posted June 25, 2003 That happened to me also a while back. Lost a frogspawn, GSP, peppermint shrimp, and tons of chitons. Everything else (fish, hermits, xenia, algae, coralline, other hitchikers, etc.) luckily survived. You made a mistake, though, by trying to cool your tank with ice. The best thing to do is to let it cool down slowly. It is the rapid temperature change that is the killer. Link to comment
zizmans Posted June 25, 2003 Share Posted June 25, 2003 Only buy Visatherm , Ebo jager, or titanium heaters Link to comment
fishbabies Posted June 26, 2003 Share Posted June 26, 2003 are all brands of titanium heaters decent? how do stainless steel heaters compare? Link to comment
leesnuts Posted June 26, 2003 Author Share Posted June 26, 2003 It was a cheap kit from PetSmart which included the heater. I lost a frogspawn, grapebranch, peppermint shrimp, bubble, flower pot, brain, sun polyps, ricordia, mushrooms, star poylps, turbo snails, 1 fish, and others. I got lucky because there were some survivors. It was one of the worst feelings. So ice was a bad idea? Lee Link to comment
40gal Posted July 3, 2003 Share Posted July 3, 2003 Hopefully we all can learn a lesson from leesnuts. I know at one point or another we have all tried to skimp on stuff and get the least expensive thing. Now you see what can happen if you don't get the RELIABLE stuff. (Reliable doesn't always have to be more expensive, but usually is.) If you add up all the livestock that was lost because of the heater, I'm sure you could have bought probably 10-15 good heaters, depending on the price paid for the corals and stuff. I recommend Ebo-Jager, and like the titanium heaters, but have had interference with the controllers of my Pro Heat. My VHO cable caused the tank to rise in temp - luckilly I caught it before it was too high. (Now all I need to do is convince my wife of this....I really need that MH to replace the VHO's that I just bought...hahaha) Leesnuts.... sorry for your loss. Travis Link to comment
Jandree22 Posted July 3, 2003 Share Posted July 3, 2003 Originally posted by zizmans Only buy Visatherm , Ebo jager, or titanium heaters I bought an Ebo Jager for my nano under strong recommendation from this site..... Defective outa the box... cooked the water warmer than a spaX) At least it happened in a bare tank!! Exchanged the $hit for my trusty visatherm:happy: Link to comment
40gal Posted July 3, 2003 Share Posted July 3, 2003 I have a Ebo-Jager on my nano and a Pro Heat on my 40. No problems with the EJ as of yet, and it seems to be one of the more highly recommended heaters out there. I don't doubt that they have defects, but mine seems to be a pretty reliable heater so far. Maybe we should all invest in the digital thermometers with alarms on them? I think I've seen them at radio shack. Link to comment
NanoJrFL Posted July 4, 2003 Share Posted July 4, 2003 I've also heard Tronic heatrs are good! I have one Link to comment
zizmans Posted July 4, 2003 Share Posted July 4, 2003 Well those are the most recommended. I use Visatherm. Link to comment
leesnuts Posted July 6, 2003 Author Share Posted July 6, 2003 I got another problem. It is so hot here that I don't need the heater during the summer. My VHO put out so much heat that the temp above what I want and now it looks like I will need to buy a chiller. I'm not going to restock until everything works perfect. I wonder if there is any action that could be taken against the heater company. Maybe a letter? I guess you live and learn. Lee Link to comment
40gal Posted July 6, 2003 Share Posted July 6, 2003 just out of curiosity, what kind of VHO setup are you running and what kind of heater you using? Link to comment
zizmans Posted July 6, 2003 Share Posted July 6, 2003 and, do you have AC. You can get a used (rebuilt) window mount unit for a lot cheaper than a chiller Link to comment
leesnuts Posted July 6, 2003 Author Share Posted July 6, 2003 I do have AC but there is nobody home so we leave it off. I was thinking of buying a small used refrigerator and modifying it to circulate tank water with a pump into a heat exchanger. I can’t believe how much chillers cost. I would buy one if I had a bigger setup. 20G setup, chiller would cost more than 80% of what I have already spent. 40gal: I’m using a Laser 125watt which puts out good heat and house gets hot too so it does not help. Smaller tanks are more difficult to maintain temperature changes but I really want to go with MH too. I don’t remember what brand the heater was but it was a package deal from PetSmart called Top Fin. I will buy a good heater buy winter time. Link to comment
foo Posted July 7, 2003 Share Posted July 7, 2003 Any heater from a starter kit should be replaced as soon as possible if you're serious about fish keeping and you don't want cooked fish. Starter kit heaters are always junk. I stopped using bi-metallic heaters completely. I've had the same sticking problem in the past using a Tetra Acura Heater and a French madeRena Cal Heater. Both of those heaters use bi-metallic valves to switch the heater on and off. On my 3 tanks I use Tronic heaters and an Azoo heater. The Azoo is similar to the titanium heaters in that it uses a separate external temperature controller. The Tronic, Azoo and Titanium (Won Bros.) are all use electronic temperature controllers, no moving parts to get stuck or wear out. However, I do have a VisiTherm heater that has never failed me after many years. But it is uses a bi-metallic switch so I don't trust it and only use it now on my hospital tank. I reccomend using only electronicly controlled heaters. Tronic, Azoo or Won Brothers. As far as the cooling problem the only (relatively) inexpensive thing to do is use fans. If you're not already doing it the fans can blow some of the warm air generated by the lights out of the hood so that less heat is transferred to the water. If the hood is not enclosed you can also try to use evaporation to reduce the water temperature by blowing air across the surface of the water. Of course you will then need to make sure to top off the tank water more often. Link to comment
40gal Posted July 7, 2003 Share Posted July 7, 2003 The reason that I asked is because I had a similar problem with my VHO's right after I got them. Although because of the type heater your using you are probably not having the same problem, check out this thread..... http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.p...threadid=173872 If it isn't a similar problem, then fans should help because I am running a 175w MH on my 20 with no temp fluctuations. Good luck. Travis Link to comment
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