# Heater Malfunction



## richbcca (Apr 21, 2010)

Woke up this morning and saw one of my dats dead. When I took him out of the tank, the water felt warm. Looked at the thermometer and it was 98.9f.
So far only one fish has died, although this morning some of the pbass and silver aros keep trying to jump out of the tank.

How fast can I lower the temp? I changed some water already, got it down to 96f.


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## AWW (Apr 22, 2010)

Lower slowly for sure. No more than a degree every hour. I would also say no more than 5 degrees a day......

They are jumping because of low oxygen, Add air stones, Make sure the water is circulating. 

Good luck, if you keep the oxygen up and lower slowly, hopefully you wont loose any more.


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## Gregzz4 (Jun 25, 2010)

Really sorry to hear about this.
What size is your tank?
Unfortunately you must drop the temp gradually. At least it's cool out today.
Some things you might consider are;
Water changes - takes time, don't go crazy dropping the temp.
Remove buckets of water and leave outside for a bit and then re-fill, monitoring with a thermometer. Only a couple of degrees can cause stress, and that can cause infections.
Ice packs - never worked for me, just melts and so no effect in a 125g.
Chiller - I have 'em on all my tanks 'cause of 2009's heat wave.
Future thoughts....
I use these
Lifegard Aquatics Lifegard Big Digital Alert Thermometer
Good luck,
Greg


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## Gregzz4 (Jun 25, 2010)

Right, Aww raised a much more important point.
Aerate your water heavily.
Power heads and canister outlets to turbulate the surface. Air stones if they are all you have. And leave your lids open a bit if you can so the air in the tank is fresh from the room. Not just tank air.
I use power heads with the air injection so the air in the tank is never stale.
You must heavily oxygenate the water @ that hi temp.
Also, you gotta check your params. Make sure your ammo, nititrates and nitrates are good. Plus your PH. If something is hi you'll have to do a w/c and use some Mildly cooler water ( 1-2 degrees ) to help with the temp.
Params and Oxygen are critical right now.
Good Luck,
Greg


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## nikkib197 (May 3, 2010)

what kind of heater was it?
If it was a marina stealth heater petsmart will give you store credit for it, if you bring it in.


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## richbcca (Apr 21, 2010)

500g. It was one of the cheaper 1000w titanium heater.


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## nikkib197 (May 3, 2010)

too bad. and sorry about your fish, at least the glass didn't break. 


richbcca said:


> 500g. It was one of the cheaper 1000w titanium heater.


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## Gregzz4 (Jun 25, 2010)

500 Gallons?
OMG, that's gonna take some time to cool down 
As I said earlier, you're gonna have to do it gradually or you will shock your fish.
Obviously you can't do it with small water changes as it'll take you all night and the next 2 days non-stop.
And putting buckets outside will not do either.
All I can suggest is you but some dry ice and float it in some safe bags.
Buy a monitor and consider a chiller.
Good luck my huge tank friend
Don't forget our suggestions to heavily turbulate the surface for aeration.
Greg


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## charles (Apr 21, 2010)

Richard, put some ice in the tank. Even you do that, you are not lower the temperature fast enough to stress the fish.

Use a powerhead aim it to the surface. Don't use a heater. I don't think you need it. My room temperature is at 76F


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## tang daddy (Apr 21, 2010)

If I am not mistaken the 1000w titanium heater runs on a controller??

If this is the case was it the controller that malfunctioned?
Because the controller tells the heater when to switch on or off.

I would be curious as I run a titanium heater on my reef aswell, it's controlled by my chiller tho!

Good luck and sorry about your dat. Also probally got the temp down by now but if you leave the tank unheated it would cool itself down to room temp in 4 hrs especially if you have a powerhead blowing at the surface.


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## seanyuki (Apr 22, 2010)

I also lost a tank of wild discus yesterday due to the Ehiem heater malfunctioned and the the water temperature went up to 40 Celsius


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